Episode 48: The Affront of an Upfront

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Something happened late last April which has been bugging me ever since. I cover the insult not just in the event itself, but in the name given such events, in this Episode 48: The Affront of an Upfront.

To support my notion that this was indeed an insult, I read from an NPR press release concerning the offending event; from Ira Glass's May 13 rebuttal of critics of that event; and from Fairness and Accuracy in Media's magazine "Extra!" and their criticism of both the event and of Glass's dissemination in "Current." I also read a Wikipedia entry giving a specific definition of an "upfront"; and close reading from Upton Sinclair's 1920 book, The Brass Check. (Specifically, the Sinclair passages read come from pages: 104; 130; 196-197; 178; 256; 365-366; 382; and 8-9.)

I provided background noises from various sources, including an online video hyping the public radio podcasting event, and music from Jahzzar (doing "Bankrupt") and Podington Bear (doing "Fragile, Do Not Drop"). Once again, the Bruce Livesey/KMFDM introduction starts the show.

Episode 47: Ludus Interruptus

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Ah, games. What's not to love? How about games being interrupted by constant appeals for money, either from ads or, perhaps worse, the game itself? Episode 47: Ludus Interruptus explores just such aggravations faced by today's gamers, some of them insidious, others merely irritating, some downright deplorable.

In today's episode, I play portions from an On The Media episode that aired November 18, 2011. I read from a publication called Game Career Guide, and another article from the British publication Express. You hear familiar games playing the background on occasion, and two tunes from Teleidofusion: "みなこ" and "Five Minutes of an Autumn."

Though I didn't mention it, this episode has yet another brand new intro, one featuring documentary filmmaker Bruce Livesey commenting on the power of corporate money compared to the power of government. He made these comments in Episode 77 of Canadaland. He was backed, as are all introductory voices to this show, by KMFDM's "Attack."