Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Episode 195: I Miss Magazines

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After seeing some of the best magazines I've ever read go quite extinct, some have wondered if the lack of advertising killed them. I would ask, rather, if magazines can afford to advertise at all. Still, in this Episode 195: I Miss Magazines.

In this episode, I read from: a 1990 Gloria Steinem article titled "Sex, Lies, and Advertising", reprinted in the collection Our Unfree Press: 100 Years of Radical Media Criticism; and an article from the Nation on the demise of Mad magazine that quotes Ms. Steinem. I play Pee Wee Herman noting the prevalence of large final exceptions. (Oh, and I forgot to mention the voice of D. L. Myers intoning the Powell Movement Stinger. Sorry, D. L.)

Musically, I play: KMFDM backing then-Mayor Bernie Sanders commenting on the concentration of media; and I close today with Mistle Thrush.

(For the curious, I recommend this page.)

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

Episode 194: Something Old, Something New

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Lately, it seems, how long we owners of tech can use our things has been shrinking, as ever-more monopolistic powers extend toward a product totalitarianism that favors newness over usefulness. This I explore Episode 194: Something Old, Something New.

In this episode, I read from John Michael Greer's book, The Long Descent (which no longer appears to be available from my library, darn it). Though I borrowed heavily from a couple wiki articles about certain computers and noise makers, I didn't directly quote any of them, so there.

Musically, KMFDM backs Representative David Cicilline decrying the monopolistic state of corporate power. Mistle Thrush plays in the closing.