Sunday Comics Dialogue- Study Hard

Greetings to everyone around the world. We are tempted to mock my alma mater WUVT (90.7-FM, Blacksburg), the student-run radio station of Virginia Tech which proclaims to be the 'greatest radio station' in the world, but we have to much respect for them, and we're not sure that the gloating is meant to be serious. But, I can say we are very popular in Russia for reasons we aren't sure of ourselves.

Before we get to dialogue from the Nov.18th edition of the Sunday "Washington Post," let's take a look at weather temps around the country: Los Angeles 55 degrees with fog; St.Louis is 52 and mostly sunny; Boston is 38 and mostly sunny; Washington DC is 40 and cloudy.

Now, let's jump in the pool:

1) "I've figured out why a lot of American cities are in decline" (from "Candorville")

2) "I know; my mom tends to hover over me during midterms" (from "Zits")

3) "When I was in high school, a test like that steered my future" (from "Frazz")

4) "....And, no more tv till your spelling improves" (from "Family Circus")

5) "I'm having second thoughts about my pre-Thanksgiving regimen" (from "Foxtrot")

6) "Think about someone you love" (from "Reply All")

7) "I'm thankful for good friends" (from "Dennis the Menace")

8) "But daddy I'm on Facebook" (from "Blondie")

9) "Don't you pay attention to the news?" (from "Sherman's Lagoon")

10) "Where do you keep the turkey baster?" (from "Garfield")

11) "First I have t finish stirring these dirty clothes" (from "Hagar the Horrible")

12) "I'll look forward to it," (from "Judge Parker")

13) "I have a huge lip gloss problem" (from "Agnes")

14) "Unfortunately, doc I live my life with no regrets" (from "F-Minus"*#)

*-Not a strip "The Washington Post" carries

#-Strip ran on Nov. 18th (today)


http://www.wuvt.vt.edu

http://www.weather.com

http://www.blondie.com

http://www.slagoon.com

http://www.garfield.com

http://www.foxtrot.com

http://www.fminus.net

The Backpackers Are Beside BestBuy (entry 4 of 6)

We had great difficulties finding an image of "In Flux" by All Creations, which consists of two Wyoming artists Matt Rink and Bland Hoke, so we also went with this image of a big black dog, since the public art display is located behind Black Dog Salvage off Memorial Avenue in Roanoke, Va.

The fourth image of Art in Roanoke that I photographed is also the hardest one to find as there is a sharp curve behind the Black Dog Salvage antiques store which leads to Vic Thomas Park where "In Flux" is located. The turn comes right after one passes Memorial Bridge, and if you literally blink you will miss it.

The artists state that their mission is to: "Try to make constantly evolving work that adapts to a landscape."

"In Flux" is perhaps the most complicated of the seven sculptures, and it is one that makes the passerby study and scrutinize it more closely than some of the other pieces.

SIDEBAR: We are happy to report that DJ Cigdem Arca is returning to WUVT (90.7 FM-Blacksburg, Va.) with "The Turkish Music Hour," from 1:00-2:30 p.m. on Saturdays this fall. WUVT-FM is the student-run college radio station of Virginia Tech. The station also airs "The Greek Show" from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturdays.

Thanks to "The Turkish Music Hour," I have become more aware of contemporary pop singers like Nil Karaibrahimgil which is quite refreshing given that the likes of Sezen Aksu ( who has been called The Turkish Madonna) and Tarkan, the internationally-known singer who has dominated Turkish pop for well over a decade.

Apparently, We're NOT Back on the Air...

Achtung! I knew things were too good to be true. After 15 or 16 tries, we have decided to post this entry meant for our other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time" here instead.

If/when we get the chance, we will simply post 'silly photos' on that blog so it can catch up with this one, and hopefully that will happen soon.

While we are at it, we wanted to mention four college radio stations and their unique programs.

First of, I wanted to start with WUVT/90.7-FM, the student-run station at Virginia Tech where I co-hosted a Turkish music show in 1994. Today, DJ Cigdem is one of the show's hosts. And, this afternoon, she played an interesting mix on her show "The Turkish Music Hour" which runs from 1:00-2:30 p.m. (local time) including a song by the late Turkish rocker Baris Manco (1943-1999).

Amazingly enough, Manco had a following in Japan of all places! He was also known as 'the man who sang about vegetables" as one of his songs, the mid-80s pop hit "Domates, Biber, Patlican," means "Tomatoes, Peppers, and Eggplants." It wound much better in Turkish!

Down the road, in Raleigh, NC, WKNC/88.1-FM, the student-run station at North Carolina State, which was playing one of my favorite songs "Nothing But Flowers" by Talking Heads when we last checked in, features "Chainsaw Rock." The heavy metal show runs on Wednesday and Thursday nights starting at midnight, and on Friday nights from 8:00 p.m.-midnight. They were the ones who introduced me to Greek Heavy Metal (?!) which was made popular by a band called Rotting Christ. I imagine they will probably not be playing in Tulsa, Okl., anytime soon.

When we were in Athens, Ga., last week, we checked out the local University of Georgia student-run station WUOG-FM.; they were playing jazz great Chuck Mangione- of all people- when were listening. While researching this piece, we were happy to discover that the '70s soft jazz icon who was born in 1940 is alive and well. On Sundays, the station has a show called "Bluegrass Junction" which plays a combination of bluegrass and folk music. It airs at 4 p.m.

Lastly, for Asian music fans, Michigan State's student run station Impact 89 features a show called "Asian Invasion," airing at 8:00 p.m., which will undoubtedly educate you about the world of Japanese and Korean pop (presumably!).

The image above is from the late comedian Soupy Sales who died at age 83 in 2009. Whenever I have a tech glitch with a computer, I feel as if someone is throwing a pie in my face too!

Special Quote of the Week- Jonathan Swift

Today, we are continuing to quip famous people from Ireland with a quote from the great writer and essayist Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) who penned the famous novel "Gulliver's Travel" (1735) that was recently made into a Jack Black film that we haven't seen (I wonder if esteemed New York film critic Nathan Lee has seen it, but he probably doesn't want to be pestered about it).


According to Wikipedia and my tenth grade English teacher Mrs. Schultz* at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Md.**, "Gulliver's Travel" is meant to be a satirical view of European government, illustrate the petty differences among faiths, question man's inherent nature and show that specific individuals may be good even if their tribe is bad.

Now that we have that important stuff out of the way, here is the quote:

"A tavern is a place where madness is sold by the bottle."

SIDEBAR: For those of you residing in the Blacksburg, Va., area, one of our favorite college radio stations (well, the one in which I actually 'worked' at) WUVT/90.7-FM is on the verge of hosting their fund-raiser for the spring.

WUVT is one of the few radio stations where one can hear the '80s cult indie rock band The Replacements and the Turkish folk group Kardes Turkuler (means Songs of Fraternity in English) within a two-hour time span!

WUVT did indeed air songs from both of these musical entities on Saturday. Their amazing lineup for that day includes "Hickory Dickory Dock," "The Greek Show," "The Turkish Show" and "Nathan and Jared."

"The Turkish Show" played several selections on Saturday from Kardes Turkuleri, a group conceived some 20 years ago which plays Anatolian folk songs in the languags of Turkish, Kurdish, Arabic and Armenian. Songs from Kardes Turkuleri were featured on the soundtrack to the 2001 comedy film "Vizontele," which was a huge domestic box office hit in Turkey.

Later in the afternoon, "Nathan and Jared" played the song "Bastards of the Young" from The Replacements of the band's acclaimed 1985 release "Tim," which makes for great listening if you are writing that long-winded book report on "Gulliver's Travels."


*-pseudonymn, well I have no idea who my tenth grade English teacher was actually

**- Yes, there is actually a Walt Whitman HS in Bethesda, Md. No, I did not actually go to school there.

Program Reminder- Turkish Music Show on WUVT-FM

Thanks to modern technology, one does not actually need to physically be in Blackburg, Va., or the surrounding communities like Newport and Christiansburg to listen to WUVT 90.7-FM, the college radio station for Virginia Tech.

In fact, by logging on to wuvt.vt.edu, a person in Bergen, Norway, or Tashkent, Uzbekistan, can listen to the show just as well as someone in Montgomery County, presuming the links are working adequately!

WUVT is known for having a nifty lineup on Saturdays, which includes "The Turkish Show" with my friend DJ Onur from 1:00-2:30 p.m. (The image above is that of a simit vendor. We have no idea if he is in Istanbul, Edirne, Eskisehir or Yozgat, but the photo was definitely taken somewhere in Turkey). Last week, Onur played selections from pop diva Sezen Aksu, renown instrumentalist Okay Temiz, the late 'Turkish hippie' Baris Manco (he had very long hair, which is very unusual in Turkey) and the folk group Kardes Turkuler.

The Virginia Tech station also has a Greek show hosted by friend Maria which runs from 11 a.m.-1:00 p.m., on Saturdays. Last week, she played tracks from Eleni Vitali, Poli Pano and Nikos Grapsas. The show has been a mainstay of the WUVT lineup since it was started by her late husband Kriton (we believe) some 20-plus years ago.

WUVT also has a bluegrass show hosted by Peter French from 7-9 a.m. (set your alarm clocks!), the children's music and entertainment show "Hickory Dickory Dock" from 9-11 am and an Iranian music show from 2:30-4:00 p.m. (All of these are Saturday shows).

Music from area musicians can be heard on the station's program "The Local Zone" which airs on Wednesday nights from 7-9.

We checked what the station was playing today, and one of the last 15 tracks was the song "Tennessee" from the band Silver Jews (?!) off their album "Bright Fright."

I've never heard of this band....perhaps, I'm getting too old!

PSA- Please Don't Drink and Drive

When I co-hosted a Turkish music radio show on 90.7 FM/WUVT in Blacksburg, Va., in 1994, my friend Bahadir and I would have to go over public service announcements that the station required us to mention.

It was a tedious and painful exercise at times, but I would like to think we helped get a kitten to a new home or made someone think about a homeless person in the streets.

With that in mind, I am going to ask folks not to drink and drive this holiday season. Yes, you've heard it before, and I don't mean to sound like an English nanny.

I tried to make this entry more interesting by featuring photos of taxi cabs in Hong Kong, China, and Istanbul, Turkey, but I am hoping this might make one person make a responsible decision tomorrow night.

On this blog and my sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Times," we are going to list taxi cab services from Maryland to South Carolina.

This list is of cabs in Maryland, Washington, DC and Virginia. Interestingly enough, Mister T, subject of an entry on Monday, was in a dreadful comedy called "DC Cab" in the mid-1980s......well, maybe it's not as bad as I remember!


Baltimore, Md.
Baltimore Taxi Co.
410-732-2600

Washington DC
Yellow Cab of DC
202-544-1212
dcyellowcab.com

Diamond Cab of DC
202-387-2221
dcdiamondcabs.com

Virginia

Roanoke
Yellow Cab Services
540-345-7711

Liberty Taxi
540-344-1776

Richmond
Deb's Taxi Service
804-439-2232
www.debstaxiservice.com

Norfolk
Checker Taxi
757-855-9009
norfolkcheckertaxi.com
857-855-9009