Web links related to the Back of the Book program of March 31, 2003


oh, good grief it's Sunday night 4/13/2003 21:10:37 and I'm only now finishing this Web page. I got to all of the below topics on the program. I did not get to a as much of the backlogged mail as I'd wanted to on this program. It was a jam packed radio environment anyway, and I hope you enjoyed it.

Here is the latest on the saga of Pacifica. The big meeting of the interim Pacifica National Board was held March 7-9, in Los Angeles, CA, to discuss and possibly even pass the new bylaws for the Pacifica Foundation. Well, it was a big flop, the various schemers sank the bylaws again. I'll be updating this link soon.

WBAI now has a program schedule up on its Web site. It's not completed yet, they still haven't gotten the individual program pages together to provide links and such, but it's a start and it's official. Here's a schedule made by a listener who has Web links for various programs and producers.

Our colleagues from Off the Hook now have both a RealAudio streaming web cast operating, and a new MP3 stream both of which were working at about 9:58 PM last night. The MP3 feed is now the preferred feed.

The Pacifica Foundation, which owns WBAI, has revamped its Web site and now has something called the Pacifica Lounge where you can post messages about Pacifica, WBAI and other Pacifica radio stations. This may be a good thing, and of course there are other, long term fora in which to participate.

WBAI also has a forum on its Web site now. You have to register to post messages, but anyone may read the messages.

With this war taking up all of the headlines I wonder if the world is missing the most important story happening right now? I'm talking about this mystery illness that showed up in Communist China, but of course they hid it from the world for months. The Italian doctor who first identified it and who bravely fought it has now died of it. To make things more cheerful, no one has found anything that's effective against the disease. Of course it's still early on in the epidemic, but if this thing is really related to the common cold then it may be very easy to catch and impossible to cure.

In a lighter microbial mode we probably don't have to worry about the Mimi Virus too much. Yet.

Speaking of things that are going unnoticed as the war goes on, that moron Bush, the usurper in the White House, is apparently going to rescind President Clinton's order which declassified most documents that were 25 years old or older.

Guess he and his pals have something to hide. Or expect to.

Of course I plan to talk about this war a bit on tonight's program. Some of what I'll talk about will be the fact that false stories have been planted in the past, sometimes with the truth shaded a bit to keep the enemy from getting too much intelligence, and sometimes to cover things up. We will have an audio aid for this part of tonight's program.

Of course part of the calculus of something like this war is the question of, “Okay we win, then what?” Who rules Iraq after that? Letting the ruling, ultra right wing Ba'ath Party stay in power after Saddam Hussein goes would be like leaving the Nazis in charge of Germany after Hitler's death. You'd get a different player, but he'd still be an ultra right wing Nazi/Ba'athist. On the other hand, the Shiites whom Washington has been wooing are the same guys who have made Iran into a fundamentalist Mohammedan hellhole. They are not our friends. Are we delivering the country to them? I sure hope that someone has thought this crap out already.

I plan on talking about media coverage of the war and how it's not as straightforward as some would have us believe. To show that it never has been I'll have a piece from a 1942, American radio broadcast about the Battle of Midway - or is it? We may also have a little something from World War II propagandist Axis Sally.

We got through a little bit of the mail backlog on this program. Pickles of the North read the E-mails on this program. Here are the E-mails we got to, the snail mail doesn't get posted. First we hear from Bill who was glad that we let him know that the famous '60s enigmatic TV series The Prisoner was airing in New York City. And then he gets into a couple of other areas.

Subject: Back to the Village
Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2003 12:37:44 -0500
From: Bill in Manhattan
To: rpm@glib.com

Thanks for calling a Prisoner alert to those of us who live in the Greater Gotham area. While you can certainly relate to previous television work done by Patrick McGoohan, do you know what? I kept last New Year's Day resolution to re-read “Lewis Carroll” because I had not the slightest idea of what the dormouse said. And I had read the Alice books for the first time not so long ago, too. I got a lot more out of a second reading of them. I am not saying that “The Wind in the Willows” isn't a better constructed story or that Carroll provokes more laughter -- I don't think he does -- but here you have a good example of what Samuel Johnson meant when he said comparisons were odious. The really important thing about Alice is this -- writing of this sort is enormously helpful in understanding things that will come along later, such as “The Prisoner.” What is also interesting is that it looks backward, as well. The author seems to be dealing not only with the past history of his own country -- but because he was a clergyman of less conviction than his father had been -- he is working out some of his own past history. And our own, too. I see that recently Uncle Sidney has been looking at the so-called entrances to “hell” locations in Britain -- I understand hell in the sense of other-worldly, and credited with magic -- places the author was familiar with from around Oxford. I think that in bringing about a meeting place, i.e. a story where these very old beliefs rub up against his own value system, he is doing what is very powerful and still un-settling in the best way (qualities in “The Prisoner,” too). Ah, the dormouse. In a single word, the dormouse has quite a lot to say, doesn't he? And penalties attach to not knowing the word. Thanks, also, for the info about the Pacifica Lounge, where Roger M. is No. 6 -- but Shawn is No. 2. I am 92. And lo! here we have a place where Fernando can not only ask questions but also talk back to himself when no one else does. Don't get me wrong, Fernando. As a conservative, I guess I probably vote the same you do (at least a lot of the time) -- but there is such a thing as measured response. If you found a thousand things you didn't like about Back of the Book, still you would have to look far and wide for a program which usually devotes 25% of the time to listener feedback. You know what, R. Paul? Having worked as a doorman, it wouldn't hurt me to read something by Kafka this year. Best wishes, Bill in Manhattan.

Our next missive concerns something Uncle Sidney and I were talking about on an earlier program, and when Pickles of the North read this on the air I had her not read everything at the end of the E-mail. I take to heart Rich's concern about reading stuff from the Goodlight board when it's written at the moment while others have written in maybe a month or more earlier. I've been sort of struggling with this concern, it's sort of like taking phone calls when I already have letter from listeners waiting. It's something I have to figure out for the future.

Subject: copyrights ,batman and otherthings.....
Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2003 04:12:45 -0500
From: rich1203@juno.com
To: rpm@glib.com

hey R on a recent allnighter i heard you discussing copyrights with uncle Sidney, you asked what would disney do if all the public domain stuff they use was still in copyright , well i think those films would still be made, just think ,those greedy execs at disney etc would think nothing of paying some shmuck a couple hundred grand for a copyright to make a movie that could go on to gross hundreds of millions worldwide........Also think of bob kane , jerry siegel and joe shuster the creators of batman and superman died in virtual poverty while fighting warner bros. and marvel comics for royalties they were due, bearing in mind that back then comic creators and publishers worked on sort of handshake agreements ....which i think leaves it more to a judjes discression.....................its a nasty game R ............................im also a creator and would do some copyright reserch before making any solid committments .......... also , i think reading posts off the Goodlight board sort of disrupts the smooth flow of the program and the letters segment,sinse some people have written in weeks in advance and may not get read due to time constraints , also i found 50 bucks close by the citi bank which is on the other side of wall str.across from you guys , ill give only a tiny portion to the fund drive sinse im still angry that dumbass mr white terminated the program 'nuff said' except for specials done by ken gale every now then .......will be listening RICH. (readable)

There are a lot of issues that are considered hazardous to talk about on the air at WBAI. But there is an Internet list called “Free Pacifica!” which you can subscribe to, and these issues are discussed there. If you subscribe to it you will receive, via E-mail, all of the messages which are sent to that list. You will also be able to send messages to the list.

If you want to subscribe to the “Free Pacifica!” list just click on this link and follow the instructions, and you'll be subscribed. Could open your eyes a little bit.

The above list has occasionally produced a high volume of E-mail because of the attention that these issues have drawn. If you would prefer to subscribe to a low volume list that only provides announcements of events related to these issues then subscribe to the FreePac mailing list.

Another list that's sprung up is the “NewPacifica” mailing list. This one is very lively and currently includes over 400 subscribers coast to coast. Being lively, of course, it sometimes also gets a bit nasty. All sorts of things are happening on this list. With that warning in mind, you can look at the NewPacifica list here, and you can join the list from that Web page too, although you'll have to deal with Yahoo! to do so.

There is also the more WBAI specific “Goodlight” Web based message board. This one has a great many people posting anonymously and there's also an ancillary board that's just totally out of hand.

The “Goodlight” Web based message board has expanded to cover all Pacifica stations.

My voice mail number at WBAI is 212-209-2996. Leave a message.

You can also send me E-mail.



WBAI related links

Free Pacifica Web site

WBAI Listeners' Web page

WBAI Management's official Web site


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The contents of this Web page are copyright © 2003, R. Paul Martin.