Valentine's Day Goodies with Genuine Nerd Toby Radloff

This video is from 1989. I love hearing this guy talk. He sounds like a Dallek from Doctor Who. At least watch this until he tries to spin the pinwheel. Harvey Pekar based a character in the American Splendor comic book on him.

DESDINOVA'S PROGRESSIVE/ART ROCK PLAYLIST

I actually made a post for the old blog of progressive/art rock a few years back utilizing YouTube videos. The problem was some links wouldn't post and some of the songs were not available because of legal issues. I've found if most people are interested in a song I post on a playlist, they will find it on one of the many music download websites by Googling the title and artist name.

I decided to go ahead with this concept after hearing "The Art Rock Suite" by National Lampoon while working on the song parody post from a few weeks ago.

Progressive rock or art rock is a genre of music that has for the most part disappeared, with the exception of Dream Theater (I think Coldplay might count as prog rock too). It was at it height of popularity in the early 70s to the late 80s. It was never popular among rock critics. It may be responsible for punk due to the fact that punkers hated it. For the most part, women don't care for it. Once a staple of classic rock radio station, many programmers these day say that it "attracts the Dungeon and Dragons geek crowd."

The stigma of prog/art rock may come from the fact that it appealed to an older crowd and many times more intellectual crowd. One famous group claimed that their audience was predominantly "bearded, pipe-smoking, college professors and hippies" until they had a number one hit and video on MTV, then teenage girls began showing up at their concerts. KTXR's Wayne Glenn has told about finding a lone prog rock LP in the collections of elderly couples, who have given or sold him their records. Part of the punkers contention with prog rock was that it was an attempt to make rock and roll nice, boring and commercial.

Another thing point out as a reason they dislike prog/art rock is it is cliched. Like other forms of popular music such as heavy metal (which prog is confused with by some people), hip-hop and country, prog has its cliches.

1. Surreal, profound and flowery lyrics. A lot of mythology and Romanticism thrown in too.
2. Orchestras and string sections.
3. More emphasis on keyboards than guitars.
4. The songs are long, usually between 5 to 25 minutes long.
5. The cover of the album is a fantasy or sci-fi painting, usually by Roger Dean (above), Frank Kelly Freas or H.R. Giger.
6. Sudden change in tempo or crescendo.
7. A big finish.
8. Most prog/art rock groups are British. Few are American (Kansas, Styx).

So let me give a playlist of great prog/art "masterpieces" for your Ipod or for you to hunt down on CDs or LP. NOTE: These ares not ranked or in any particular order, just as they came up on my Ipod.

1. "Suite Madam Blue" Styx
2. "Bohemian Rhapsody" Queen
3. "Bloody Well Right" Supertramp
4. "Catherine of Aragon" Rick Wakeman
5. "Conquistador" Procol Harum (The 1972 live version)
6. "Carry On Wayward Son" Kansas
7. "March of the Mad Duke's Circus" Ars Nova (Another early prog/art rock band from L.A)
8. "Rock & Roll Dreams Come True" Jim Stienman
9. "Welcome to the Machine" Pink Floyd
10. "Tubular Bells" Mike Oldfield
11. "Heat of the Moment" Asia
12. "Do It Again" Steely Dan
13. "Spirits In the Night" Manfred Mann's Earth Band
14. "Green Eyed Lady" Sugarloaf
15. "July Morning" Uriah Heep
16. "Locomotive Breath" Jethro Tull
17. "The Fountains of Salmacis" Genesis (Peter Gabriel era)
18. "When the Heart Rules The Mind" GTR
19. "I've Seen All Good People" Yes
20. "The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Feather" Alan Parson Project
21. "Rondo" The Nice
22. "Turn It On Again" Genesis (Phil Collins era)
23. "Dream Weaver" Gary Wright
24. "Karn Evil #9 (1st Impression)" Emerson, Lake and Palmer (a.k.a "Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends")
25. "Art For Art's Sake" 10CC
26. "God Gave Rock and Roll To You" Argent
27. "Cold as Ice" Foreigner
28. "Mad Puppet" Goblin
29. "In the Court of the Crimson King" King Crimson
30. "Nights in White Satin" Moody Blues
31.  "Nice, Nice, Very Nice" Ambrosia
32.  "Roll Over Beethoven" Electric Light Orchestra
33. "Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)" Mike & the Mechanics
34. "Joy" Apollo 100
35. "Pretty Ballerina" The Left Banke (Many believe the first prog rock band)
36. "Mars" Isao Tomita (Note: Not "Mars: Bringer of War." He does a version of that song too.)
37. "A Farewell To Kings" Rush (I knew if I left off Rush, their fans would whine)
38. "Gravedigger" The New York Rock & Roll Ensemble
39. "Theme from Clockwork Orange" Walter Carlos




  

Ron Palillo, who played Horshack on 'Welcome Back, Kotter,' dies at 63 - KansasCity.com

Ron Palillo, who played Horshack on 'Welcome Back, Kotter,' dies at 63 - KansasCity.com

WHAT HAPPENED TO POKING FUN AT SQUARES?

Over time the portrayals of certain groups of people have changed over the years. You can see many horrible politically incorrect images in old movies and cartoons. I feel that our nation is better off because we now frown on this type entertainment, yet I feel have no problem with TCM or DVD's showing this in the historical context.

However, I have noticed an odd paradigm shift of sorts that I do not think is healthy for our pop culture. It is also hard to understand.  When I was growing up, there were "nerds" and there were "squares." Yes, we poked fun at nerds in their horn-rimmed glasses with the tape on them, high-water pants, two-toned shoes and walrus laugh. They were clumsy around girls and were not very hip, but they were harmless. If given a chance, they could hang with the really cool people and be quite a bit of fun. They long to be cool too.  Truth is: WE ALL ALL NERDS IN SOMEWAY. To give you an example, Eddie Deezen (above) is the perfect example of a nerd. Other examples would be the late Wally Cox and Thom Bray of Riptide.

On the other hand, there were the "squares." These people are never any fun. They never smile. They have an axe to grind with the modern society. Unlike the nerd, who longs to be cool, the square does want to be cool. They feel that feel that it is wrong to be cool. They also work to destroy anything that is fun or cool. Squares like to get on a soapbox and give a big speech about how much better they are than you. Of course, us hipsters would blow a raspberry, thumb our nose or make a sarcastic comment about them. It was actually more acceptable to make fun of a "square" than a "nerd," because, as I mentioned earlier, most people feel that they themselves are nerds, yet a square is pompous, arrogant and put themselves above everyone else. The squares typically were in authority or the overachievers in school that the adults liked (This included jocks). The Muppet Show's Sam the Eagle (above) is a perfect example of a square. Other examples, of a more villainous nature, would be John Vernon, who played Dean Wormer in Animal House, Paul Gleason, who played Principal Vernon in Breakfast Club, and J.T. Walsh, who played Sgt. Dickerson in Good Morning, Vietnam and Big Bob in Pleasantville.

Yes, it was a wonderful time in this country. You could make jokes about Lawrence Welk, Pat Boone, Dan Quayle or The Waltons, and people would laugh. Nobody tried to get you fired from your job. We showed nerds to be lovable goofs and it made feel good about ourselves. If the squares made us feel bad about ourselves, thumbed our noses at them and went on having fun. Life was good.

Now, things have sadly changed. Now if you make fun of a square, like Tim Tebow or Sarah Palin, you are considered a "terrorist." Every talk radio show host will start throwing a big fit, Fox News will lead every hour with wall-to-wall coverage and Facebook will suddenly have a bunch of hate sights about you. Yes, making fun or disrespecting "squares" doesn't get laughs now. Instead of laughs, Megan Kelly will scream and whine about this every hour, Eric Bolling will call you bad names and then they will have Bill O'Reilly will finish you off. A bunch of stay-at-home moms (with nothing better to do) will try to have you unfriended and removed from Facebook. You see, "squares" are now our heroes and they are saving America from dangerous threats, like "nerds."

Yes, the big thing among some talk radio show host is to blame "nerds" for our problems. One host claims that "nerds use their brains to hurt us." They are to blame for science, technology, education and liberal journalism. Another host claims that most of the "immoral" entertainment was developed by "nerds" in Hollywood to try to empress women. These guys also claim that "nerds" want to be liked by women, so they let them be in authority and run things. It is all because they "worship" fictional strong women like Wonder Woman, Lara Croft and Xena. When the "nerds" aren't worshiping Wonder Woman, making dirty movies and music, or hurting us with their brains, "nerds" are committing murder, rape, child molestation and other crimes. However, these talk radio guys always point out that the worst thing "nerds" do "is to plot revenge on the popular kids who made fun of them in school." It is hard to believe these talk radio guys make more money than anyone else in the radio industry.

Of course, this makes sense that talk radio people and goons on Fox News take up for "squares" because THEY ARE THE "SQUARES." On the other hand, nerds are another group of "outsiders" that they can tell us to hate and blame all of our problems on.

This part of the problem in radio. Once upon a time, a Top-40 or rock DJ would have poked fun at "squares," but now the "squares" in talk radio work for the same company as that owns the rock/T40 station. The corporate management people are all "squares" too (Have you ever met a business person that WASN'T a "square"?), so they don't allow the rock/T40 people to make fun of "squares." As a matter of fact, the DJs on rock/T40 station sound as "square" as the talk radio "squares." They also don't want to hire a "nerd," because that would contribute to their evil plot to get revenge on the popular kids in school (who were "squares").

That is the opposite of Bill Drake's philosophy that most listeners want to be told what is cool and hip, so they want to be cool and hip. Of course, that was the days when being cool and hip was better than being "square." Now "cool and hip" is an act of terrorism.

I say we should make fun of the "squares," because how else will a "nerd" like myself ever look "cool and hip" to empress women and get revenge on those popular kids who made fun of me in school.

Opinions, like these, are why I'm considered the Super-Villain of the Ozarks!!! Mwu-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!