Taking a quick break away from the Greater Downtown series (continuing on Monday) to rave a bit about the recent disturbance in the force called KPIG radio.

Back when I first moved to San Francisco, in 1980, I was astonished at all the great radio stations. KFOG and KMEL were both playing a lot of eclectic AOR (album-oriented-rock), and KJAZ just completely knocked me out with its jazz programming. Community-supported radio pioneer KPFA was also a great source of interesting music from out of the mainstream.

But the all-time greatest radio station in the Bay Area was KFAT. It was hard to tune in, but it was worth the static and hiss. It had an unbelievably comprehensive record collection, knowledgable DJs, and a passion for mixing it up.

That station eventually morphed into KPIG, which has kept the old-school "underground radio" tradition alive. Based near Santa Cruz, they still have real live DJs who pick out their own music based on whatever they want to play. They take requests, mix in weird audio clips, comedy bits, and listener comments left on their answering machine. It's radio insanity, in a good way.

And now, it's in Chico. Broadcasting at 96.7 on the FM dial, it replaced some boring corporate format hip hop station. It just went live this week, and it is now the favored preset on every radio I have any control over. It has replaced KCHO, KZFR, KVMR, and everything else for the foreseeable future. I expect it will be the same for a great many people in Chico, and our cultural consensus will be forever altered because of it. I have heard a lot of music I've always loved and haven't heard for years. I'm also hearing a lot of great music I'd never heard before. It's like being hooked up to an IV drip of hip.

It's also a stone gas to hear the traffic reports. They'll be going on about the long backup at the maze, the overturned big rig on 17, the injury accident in the East Bay, etc., then say "...and in Chico, everything seems to be moving along just fine..." Traffic reports in Chico; so not done.

Long squeal the pig!

Posted by Alan Chamberlain at 09:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Yusuf Islam, the former Cat Stevens, has been in the news lately, after a long hiatus, during which he created no small controversy by endorsing the Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa against Salman Rushdie. He later appeared on the public radar when he was refused entry to the US.

I can't say I'm all that impressed with him, at this point. I've known enough accomplished musicians in my time to understand that they are not necessarily penetrating critical thinkers. Stevens' music made a big impression on me in his heyday, as I had ambitions of becoming a singer/songwriter. I knew and played all of his popular tunes.

When he converted to Islam, I was reminded of a Redd Foxx line in a '70's-era blaxploitation flick about a character who had coverted for love (paraphrased); "Must be some mean [loving] to make a man change gods!" It was funny at the time; might have had something to do with cannabis.

When he was interviewed about the Rushdie fatwa, though, I thought "what a tool". Brainwashed, I figured, and what a damned shame, but it could have been worse; he could have ended up like Jimi Hendrix. Or Ted Nugent. Just another addled has-been hero, sedulously devouring some feckless spiritual junk food. At least he didn't choke to death on his own vomit.

So now he reappears with a new record, a contrite if cautious persona, and a media blitz. I'm just cynical enough to suspect that he's driven to try to rehab Islam's image in the West. "It's a religion of peace, I'm just interested in peace, all you need is love" etc.

And he may well be sincere. There are billions of Muslims who are not murderous criminal fanatics, who simply find serenity in solemn contemplation of the verses of the Prophet, and who are, in Douglas Adams' excellent description of humankind, Mostly Harmless. So if he can manage to create a little goodwill for his fellow believers, reduce the tensions between neighbors, and maybe dial back the simmering hostility directed towards innocent people who've done nothing more than believe a comforting fairy tale, it's probably a net gain for society. And if he can make a few bucks at it, well, we all gotta eat.

But I still think he's a tool. Islam, notwithstanding my earlier observation that the vast majority of adherents are basically decent people, is a fat load of rubbish. I hasten to add that Christianity, and the theological dimension of Judaism, are part and parcel of that same load of rubbish. No one need boast discriminating cognitive faculties to write or perform entertaining music. If his music entertains, may a thousand flowers bloom and all that. But make no mistake, the core articles of faith in all of the various denominations of the Yahweh Cult are fundamentally wicked, even when invoked benignantly. As Sam Harris persuasively argues in his books, faith is the devil's masterpiece.

What I've heard of his music in his various media appearances does not interest me. He sounds like he always did, but his message is banal, smug, and sanctimonious, and I'm over it. No blame, perseverance furthers, may his tribe increase and all the rest, but I say it's spinach, and I say to hell with it.

Posted by Alan Chamberlain at 07:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I read several newspapers a day online. For getting the information and understanding it, nothing beats the net. I usually start with SFGate, the San Francisco Chronicle site, then OpinionJournal.com, the Wall Street Journal site. Finally, I end up at the ER. I scan the headlines, drill down into the stories that pique my interest, move on to the letters and Op Ed. Then to the blogs, to read Lon and Dan and Fred. Free-floating bloviation? You're soaking in it.

But then I also take a midmorning break to get a bagel and a cup of coffee at Brooklyn Bridge, and while the winsomely wholesome but defiantly decadent coed toasts my bagel as I wait, I take advantage of those few minutes to peruse the dead tree version of the daily fishwrap. I confess it's the Sacramento Bee. They've got the best comics page in the Pacific time zone, ahead of the Mercury News by a nose.

Frankly, it's mostly about the funnies. I know I can find most any syndicated strip on the web, but it's much more satisfying to methodically work my way down the comic pages, skipping the Family Circus and Mark Trail, but always lingering over Doonesbury and Dilbert, Luann and Zits (ever notice they have the same parents?), For Better or Worse and Rose is Rose. They don't even have to be funny; just familiar.

I'm not all that fond of the Bee's political cartoons, but I still check them out. That's the thing you really can't find online anywhere. Used to be that every daily of any decent size had its own in-house political cartoonist, but it's a dying breed. Most papers subscribe to a syndication service. Still, the political cartoon is one of the few reasons to pick up or look at a conventional newspaper. And it's important that people still do so. Not for the usual justification of a well-informed electorate; but because it's discrete, serial, and the closest any community has to a "public record".

I suppose I'm old school. My dad was a newspaperman, and I grew up hanging out in the offices of a small-town daily. I don't think the hard-copy dog trainer is all that relevant in the Blog Age, but it's mental meatloaf, comfort food for the mind.

Posted by Alan Chamberlain at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)