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Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Friday, November 30, 2012
Sunday, September 16, 2012
New Show - Stuart And The Dollyrots
http://traffic.libsyn.com/bedasso/TSBS_September_16_2012.mp3
Stuart wants Herman's Hermits, but this week we bring you an excusive interview with Kelly and Luis from The Dollyrots. We talk about their new album and the upcoming tour...and Dave will not be following them to Liechtenstein. Dave's Dad bestwows gifts upon Dikoff Studio. Melyssa has an ephiphany. Epiphany and Ivory live together in perfect harmony. DON'T feed your pet food from Purina. More new band names for you to steal. Hurry before The Dollyrots steal one!
Music:
The Dollyrots - F U Famous
The Dollyrots - Twist Me To The Left
Tony Joe White - Groupy Girl
The Peacocks International Guitar Band - Feresirima
Sunday, July 15, 2012
New Show - Co-opoly
Download the Show Here:http://traffic.libsyn.com/bedasso/TSBS_July_15_2012.mp3
I think we may have coined a new phrase with this show - Girl Junk. Our tribute to the late, great actor and masturbator, Ernest Borgnine kicks off the show. What's the effing deal with Kodak? The judge should just put them out of our misery. Jeremy sucks, but Brian, from Co-oply rocks! We interviewed Brian Van Slyke from the co-operative who brings you Co-opoly. We talk about the game, co-operatives in general and the history of Monopoly. A great story! Buy a Co-opoly from the Stuart Bedasso website and get awesome swag! We kid you not!
Special shout out section! Make sure you check out the book signing by TSBS friend, James Bailey. It's on July 21, 2012 at Liftbridge Book Shop in Brockport, NY from 2-4pm. James is there signing is debut novel, The Greatest Show on Dirt. Tell him Stu sent ya!
Music:
Eleni Mandell - Magic Summertime
Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad - Pockets
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
This Kool-Aid Tastes Familiar
It's late and if I'm not going to go to bed there are a million things I should be working on, but I just can't. Everywhere I go on the internets I see liberals plotzing over the President saying gays should be allowed to marry. Doesn't this kool-aid taste a bit familiar?
First of all, as Stuart mentioned on his Facebook earlier today, why is it that Barack Obama's values "evolve" while Mitt Romney flip-flops? Kind of a double-standard don't you think? You have to look at the "hope & change" smoke and mirrors bullshit and all the rhetoric while doing a lot of bad, nasty stuff. This is pure calculation. Really? Joe Biden pushed him to come out and say this? This was staged, pure and simple.
OK...Obama said gays should be allowed to marry. He's the freaking POTUS, what's he going to do about it? Nothing, that's what. He found his out..."but it's still up to the states to decide." Fuck you, dude. And all the liberals (notice I said liberals, not progressives) are swallowing this stuff all over again. Why?
Because they've been searching for anything they can to hold on to the "hope" that he'll come around and do something liberal. Not talk. DO. Hey POTUS, how about that Executive Order repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell? Thought not.
A lot of my Facebook friends are delirious that this has gone down. Many of them are also my friends in real life, too. And I know my tone with this is going to annoy them, but this is the coldest, calculatedest, political move this guy has ever done.. Look at the laundry list of issues he's "pulled the football" from. [Note: this was written before the "revelation" was announced and I wouldn't use the word "progressive" in the context this author did, but the list is spot on.]
Yes, Barack Obama pulling this stunt does have one good part to it, even though his reason for doing it is wrong. The President of the United States saying that gays should be allowed to marry is one tiny brick in the wall in the struggle for equality. But really, it's not as big of a deal as many are making it. He's a Democrat! He's supposed to accept same sex marriage. Think about it...this being such a big deal to so many...doesn't that tell you that maybe the bar is a bit low?
And why now? Huh? This wasn't really on the mainstream media's radar right now. And as many wealthier gays had been holding out in contributing - let's see how many of them start ponying up this week. Calculated. Shoot, I'm wondering if another war is right around the corner.
OK...and one last point. Even if this is legit; real "evolution". The Green Party and all 3 of the people vying for their nomination have always been down with same-sex marriage. And every single other issue people who are liberal or progressive claim to stand for. Just sayin.
I'm sure I'll post another time on the "lesser of two evils" anti-logic as we get closer to the election.
Alrighty...feel free to let me have it in the comments.
First of all, as Stuart mentioned on his Facebook earlier today, why is it that Barack Obama's values "evolve" while Mitt Romney flip-flops? Kind of a double-standard don't you think? You have to look at the "hope & change" smoke and mirrors bullshit and all the rhetoric while doing a lot of bad, nasty stuff. This is pure calculation. Really? Joe Biden pushed him to come out and say this? This was staged, pure and simple.
OK...Obama said gays should be allowed to marry. He's the freaking POTUS, what's he going to do about it? Nothing, that's what. He found his out..."but it's still up to the states to decide." Fuck you, dude. And all the liberals (notice I said liberals, not progressives) are swallowing this stuff all over again. Why?
Because they've been searching for anything they can to hold on to the "hope" that he'll come around and do something liberal. Not talk. DO. Hey POTUS, how about that Executive Order repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell? Thought not.
A lot of my Facebook friends are delirious that this has gone down. Many of them are also my friends in real life, too. And I know my tone with this is going to annoy them, but this is the coldest, calculatedest, political move this guy has ever done.. Look at the laundry list of issues he's "pulled the football" from. [Note: this was written before the "revelation" was announced and I wouldn't use the word "progressive" in the context this author did, but the list is spot on.]
Yes, Barack Obama pulling this stunt does have one good part to it, even though his reason for doing it is wrong. The President of the United States saying that gays should be allowed to marry is one tiny brick in the wall in the struggle for equality. But really, it's not as big of a deal as many are making it. He's a Democrat! He's supposed to accept same sex marriage. Think about it...this being such a big deal to so many...doesn't that tell you that maybe the bar is a bit low?
And why now? Huh? This wasn't really on the mainstream media's radar right now. And as many wealthier gays had been holding out in contributing - let's see how many of them start ponying up this week. Calculated. Shoot, I'm wondering if another war is right around the corner.
OK...and one last point. Even if this is legit; real "evolution". The Green Party and all 3 of the people vying for their nomination have always been down with same-sex marriage. And every single other issue people who are liberal or progressive claim to stand for. Just sayin.
I'm sure I'll post another time on the "lesser of two evils" anti-logic as we get closer to the election.
Alrighty...feel free to let me have it in the comments.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Musings on #OccupyRochester
If you’ve been listening to the podcast the past couple of weeks, you know that I’ve been involved in the local Occupy movement, hereto referred to as Occupy Rochester. I have some observations that focus just on the local movement, but could be tied to the national one or other locals as well.
There are folks who are participating and some who are just observing who are commenting that the Occupy Rochester isn’t making demand for anything and that has been frustrating for them. I understand their frustration, but I think these folks are missing the point of what is happening here. Those goals are relevant, but even more so is the process of how we get there (to go New Agey…the journey). How OR operates is even more important than the specific things we want changed because we are modeling a new way of decision-making for most people. It’s messy, it takes time and it’s hard work. But if we don’t take the time to get our decision-making process down in a transparent manner, we risk the danger of becoming a top-down faux-movement.
On a pragmatic note, look at the growth of Occupy Wall Street. Their process was slow and deliberate, but it just seemed faster because they have General Assemblies (GA) every day. They did not immediately start making demands or working on specific issues and their group became exponentially bigger. Why? Because when you start narrowing your focus you lose people who don’t care about those issues. Let’s be honest, the daily GA’s in Rochester have a large number for Rochester, but do not represent the people as a whole in this town. Far from it. For the numbers to get bigger, we cannot start narrowing our message and right now our message is that government is broken.
Our government doesn’t listen to us, they take away our rights. THAT is what we are fighting right now. The occupation of Washington Square Park IS our fight at this moment. It is a meta issue that will allow us to continue the process of democracy. The Mayor of Rochester is saying that we can have all the free speech we want as long as it is on HIS terms. That’s huge!
Now, the local media isn’t getting it. They are covering this as a traditional news story. “If there are only 4 people camping out at WSP for #occupyrochester, does it warrant so much attention?” goes one Tweet. TV cameras come out for their 15 second backdrop shot around the 6pm news and that’s about it. There hasn’t been an in depth look at why people are here. They exist to make money and a long, ongoing analysis of what we are doing doesn’t make them money. We will continue to be dismissed by them for a while, which is why we should be more focused on grassroots organizing to get more people involved.
Now, there are some things I would like to see OR do. And as an activist my instinct is to just go ahead and do it on my own and see who wants to help, but that’s not going to benefit the movement in the long run.
I want to see us handing out lit every day at the Liberty Pole and the Public Market on Saturdays. If I were to just go and do that on my own, it could go against a decision of the group without me knowing it. So I am going to get to a GA as soon as I can and try to suggest we start handing out lit that has been developed. If the GA thinks that is a good idea, I will ask for volunteers for help in printing, folding and distributing it and together we will make a schedule for when and where it will be done. WE will be doing this together if there are people who want to see it happen.
There’s a perfect example of that happening right now as people posted the letter being given to the Mayor on FB about a meeting when it was agreed that it wouldn’t be publically released until 11am. Not a huge mistake, but it is an example of how we are not working together for the greater good of the movement.
I would also love to shout down or just ban all the spammers and trolls on the FB group, but commenting just bumps up their extraneous stuff to higher up on the page. For better or worse, this IS what democracy looks like. Wouldn’t it be great if Facebook had an app that would take all of your postings and put a different name on them, then make you read them so you can see if you make any sense? I don’t know if it would be effective, but it would sure be nice to try.
Here’s the thing that most people don’t talk about in an (allegedly) free society. You have the right to say almost anything you like, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should say it. There are a number of posts on the OR Facebook group that I think are off the point, destructive and show a lack of understanding of human nature. And if I were to comment on every single one of them it would do nothing but tear down what we are trying to build. That doesn’t mean people should keep their mouths shut, but it would be nice if folks thought more and reacted less. I wonder if the way some people interact on FB is the way they talk to people face-to-face. I actually hope not.
It is imperative that we have a base in which to work, to show the community what democracy looks like. That is why our fight for Washington Square Park is so important. Our government doesn’t dictate our rights, we dictate what our government does for us. That is our first struggle that we have to overcome before we can get to the other stuff. But that “other stuff” is coming, if we do this right. We can’t compare ourselves to other Occupy movements. Every one is unique as we all have different personalities, resources and situations. We can learn from each other, share ideas and support, but let us not compare ourselves to each other.
We’re making a difference! We just have to keep reminding ourselves of that. Keep up the struggle sisters & brothers!
ADDENDUM: A nice article from the UK that has a similar take.
ADDENDUM: A nice article from the UK that has a similar take.
- Dave
Sunday, August 7, 2011
New Show - A Kinder, Gentler Facism
Download the Show Here:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/bedasso/TSBS_August_7_2011.mp3
http://traffic.libsyn.com/bedasso/TSBS_August_7_2011.mp3
This week we have 2004 Presidential Candidate, David Cobb, on the show. He was the Green Party candidate, dumbass. Anyway, he's in town on his barnstorming tour to end corporate personhood, working with the Move To Amend coalition. Go there, sign the petition and if there isn't already a local chapter start one. Go. Do it now. We'll wait. We talk about hydrofracking, how much Crap-mart sucks, the Park Avenue Festival and independent businesses - and we make it fun! Get ready for links to David's presentation.
Music:
