Bbc @ MindSay

 

Have you run across this television show on BBC America? It is worse than the crocodile hunter or fear factor for putting the fear of anything and everything into you. Sometimes I have to put my hands over my eyes and watch through the cracks as these two british Dames enter a house that has been left to crud and mold for  what seems like eternity. They scrub the whole thing down and they even take bacteria cultures to show the owners how filthy their homes are in order to frighten them into keeping it clean. it seems to work.

 

 

Now these are not ordinary dusty homes like all of us- these are houses where no strangers  can step foot because it looks worse than an alabama frat house after two weeks of binging. The worse program recently showed how much candida (  as in yeast infection?) and fecal matter was in the woman's carpet, furniture and washing machine. OMG. doesn't that make you sick? well of course it SHOULD make you sick. Imagine going to someone's house and catching a yeast infection from the dining room chairs. ack.

 

Now I confess that I am one of those people who would only stay in a cheap motel if the alternative was the street on a snowy night. and I travel with my own small down pillow and a silk thing called  a sleep sack in case the sheets are icky. and I would NEVER EVER EVER sit naked on a hotel bedspread. Not even atthe ST Regis.  I put down a towel first because at least I imagine they get washed before I checked in.

My house isn't pristine but I dont think it's a quarantine zone either. a little mess, some dust kitties and maybe the toilets should be swabbed today. but I ont think  you can get juicy cultures off my furniture- just some cat hair. some strawberry blone hair and - from my husband - no hair.  no there ARE beard hairs in the sink sometimes.

 

so maybe my cleanliness ick factor is different than yours in which case ignore this blog and continue believing that having a a filthy house builds your immune system.

BBC2 held a contest decades ago called "Music 2000" -- in which contestants competed to predict the type of music we'd all be listening to in the year 2000.  They then sang a snippet of the song.

I was amazed with the way this contestant determined that rap music would be the future -- and how accurately he portrayed the way it would sound at the turn of the 21st century!  Have a listen...



(I've recently discovered this BBC series entitled "Look Around You."  Absolutely brilliant.  Do a search on YouTube and you'll find several episodes of this nifty "educational" programme "from the 1980s." *wink* )

I've written in the past about my sister who has had a very varied career in radio.  A few weeks ago I was googling to find an Irish landscaper who could clean up a cemetery plot and instead a Dublin business posting caught my eye - a former dj/pirate who had a website that talked of both his career and pirate radio in general. http://homepage.eircom.net/~kieranmurray/career.htm

I wrote him and introduced myself and invited him to read the blog I wrote a few years ago about her career complete with some photos.  http://bbmyls2go.mindsay.com/its_not_just_a_job_its_an_adventure.mws  

Overseas she worked aboard a ship, a literal pirate, that broadcast American rock and roll with an American crew to Europe.

That correspondence sparked my interest and I googled her and the ship, the MV Communicator to see if anything new had been posted in the last couple of years.  I found tons of fansites of people called Anoraks, radio groupies.  As well as some from people associated with the station in various ways :

http://www.bobleroi.co.uk/ScrapBook/Laser558/Laser558.html

Alas the poor Communicator is being scrapped and all the forums are buzzing about it.  But some are now buzzing about my blog as my correspondence was followed by a post I made on a forum about the Communicator.  The first link is a forum with fans discussing how the Communicator moved around and finally was "dry-docked" and includes my post, the second is a more recent picture of the ship :

http://www.orkneycommunities.co.uk/imagelibrary/picture/number1710.asp

http://www.orkneycommunities.co.uk/imagelibrary/picture/number3715.asp

My sister (air name Jessie), emailed me the other day that she belongs to some newsletters regarding radio and that there have been two mentions of my blog there as well!  This is the best, in the last line I even get a good review for my story of her career! (the article is in the Dutch language so this is translated by babelfish at altavista.com) : 

 

 

I then recieved a note from someone wanting to get in touch with her (a fan) and left it to my sister to decide to drop them a hello or not. But I find it fascinating that so many people are still so enamored of Laser 558 and Jessie and the other djs almost 25 years after they did their thing (the station was persecuted by the British authorities and did not remain on the air for a very long time, about a year, I think).  I never thought to check Youtube, but indeed there was a BBC newshow that did a segment on the then new radio station and though Jess isn't interviewed, she is on screen several times and there is a lot of the music they were famous for playing in the background.  There are lots of great histories and stories and photos of the crew and ship all over the internet and she should probably start a blog of her own with all the sites linked, but if you have any interest in this unique brand of radio, here is the BBC show :  (it's about 8 minutes long, but even the intro 45 seconds is pretty cool)

 

 

As I mentioned, the MV Communicator which has undergone several rehabs and worked in other parts of Europe in the last 20 years is now forlornly  being dismantled.  The antennae are gone, the generators, the transmitters, and it is almost history.  I'm really curious, since Jessie lived the life, how she feel when she sees something like this next video, a TRIBUTE to Laser 558.  I'm just grinning ear to ear with pride watching it, it is so cool that her work had such an impact.  She's out of radio now caring for Mom, but who knows, with this little media wave I created by writing one fan, maybe her future includes a return to the air (she'll HATE me for saying that, she LOVES her gardening now!).   So here's to Jessie, the MV Communicator, and all the crazy djs who took up life on the high seas in the name of rock and roll !

Did anyone else catch the series finale of "Life On Mars" this week?

They did a good job with it. I hope the US adaptation (on ABC in January 2008) is almost as good...

I am a huge fan of the show(s) The Office (both the current American one on NBC and the now ended Britsh one that was on BBC)

but I was thinking as I watch it the other day the following things:

1. God, Pam is co cute.

2. Steve Carell may very well be the funniest man ever

3. why the hell aren't Pam and Jim together?

4. Michael Scott is a asshole boss.

5. the dude who play Jim and the guy who played his british counterpart, Tim, look alike.

 

 

Martin Freeman as Tim Canterbury (BBC)

John Krasinski as Jim Halpert (NBC)

 

Ok so they're not identical but they do look kind of alike right?

  Michael: Abraham Lincoln once said that "If you are a racist, I will attack you with the North," and those are the principles I carry with me in the workplace.

 

Thanks,

 Mark