If I Was President

The Strange Land opens up this week onto a Zone of somewhat Twilight varietal, a portal into a would have could have world, one in which the mild-mannered and unsuspecting Chuck Weiss finds himself over there in the lone and peculiar predicament, as President of those United States of America. What dangers loom, policy-wise and personal, political and international? Mutiny Radio has all manner of odd detritus and devices including a viewing machine into other realms such as that one right there (and I think a vending machine for beer? What marvels of the mind!)!

PLAYLIST

• In the Hall of the Mountain King – Erasure
• Won’t Get Fooled Again – The Who
• Hail to the Chief and other American ephemera
• Impeach the President – The Honey Drippers
• I Wanna Rule the World – 10cc
• Jimi Hendrix instrumentals
• I’d Love to Change the World – Ten Years After
• City Hall – Tenacious D
• Everybody Wants to Rule the World – Lorde
• Fight the Power – Public Enemy
• If I Was President – Wyclef Jean
• If I Ruled The World – Tony Bennett
• There’s a Better World’s Coming – Woody Guthrie

Circa 1948

We break the taboo tonight and de-segregate the post-war Blues era, co-mingling  syncopations signaling a broader tolerance, “a world in which there shall be an equality of opportunity for every race and nation.”

But I do fear a social conformity will take hold with all this fear-mongering and witch-hunting!

PLAYLIST
In The Hall Of The Mountain King – Will Bradley-Ray McKinley Band
As Time Goes By – Arthur “Dooley” Wilson
One O’Clock Jump – Count Basie & His Orchestra
Butterfly Strut – Ziggy Elman And His Orchestra
Artistry in Rhythm – Stan Kenton & His Orchestra
Jersey Bounce – Benny Goodman & His Orchestra
Boogie Woogie – Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra
Flying Home – Hamton, Lionel & His Orchestra
Drumming Man – Gene Krupa
Tschaikowsky (And Other Russians) – Danny Kaye
Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition – Kay Kyser & His Orchestra
I’m My Own Grandpaw – Guy Lombardo
You Keep Coming Back Like a Song – Dinah Shore
Don’t Get Around Much Any More – The Ink Spots
Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah – Johnny Mercer and The Pied Pipers
Besame Mucho (Kiss Me Much) – Jimmy Dorsey & His Orchestra
Brazil – Xavier Cugat And His Orchestra
Heartaches – Ted Weems & His Orchestra
Ciribiribin – Harry James & His Orchestra
C Jam Blues – Duke Ellington & His Orchestra
Canned Heat – Chet Atkins
That Lucky Old Sun – Frankie Laine
Deep In The Heart Of Texas – Horace Heidt And His Musical Knights
Riders In The Sky – Vaughn Monroe
Pistol Packin’ Mama – Al Dexter and His Troopers
Detour – Spade Cooley
Move It on Over – Hank Williams
Cool Blues – Charlie “Bird” Parker
Sophisticated Lady – Duke Ellington
I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm – Les Brown
Bebop – Charlie “Bird” Parker
Elmer’s Tune – Dick Jurgens And His Orchestra
Snowfall – Claude Thornhill And His Orchestra
Stardust – Artie Shaw & His Orchestra
Do You Dig My Jive – Sam Price and his Texas Bluesicians
Mean Old ‘Frisco Blues – Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup
Knockin’ Myself Out – Lil Green with Big Bill Broonzy
Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby – Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five
Open the Door, Richard – Count Basie Orchestra
I Wonder – Cecil Gant
Laura – David Raksin
Nature Boy – Nat King Cole

Stranger in a Strange Land 2013-03-09: Circa 1948 by The Stranger on Mixcloud

The Future

This week, aaron.Jacob and I look to the future of hoverbikes, robots, augmented reality and bio-hacking. Forecasts and predictions exceed our wildest imaginings, but will they prove realistic or surrealistic?

Try not to get too future shocked as we set the dial on our experimental time machine and hope for the best… tomorrow!

PLAYLIST
In The Hall Of The Mountain King (Terramix) – terraon
Future Shock – Curtis Mayfield
“The Daleks” (Serial B): TARDIS Computer – Brian Hodgson
Past Present and Future – Demon Fuzz
Tank! (TV Edit) – Seatbelts
Robot Parade – They Might Be Giants
2014 – The Unicorns
Idioteque – Radiohead
Violent – The Faint
Remember The Future (part 1-2) – Nektar
Buffalo Stance – Need New Body
In The Bio Burbs – PASSAGE
Energy Traffic – The Mole
We Are the Future – Non Phixion
Virus – Deltron
Seventeen Years – RATATAT
Friends 4 Ever – Girl Talk
IBM MT/ST The Paperwork Explosion (instr.) – Scott, Raymond
Uske Orchestra – Pel-Pun
Polka Electronic Death Country (Otto Von Schirrach remix) – Mochipet
Laser Eyes Clip – Sifl & Olly
Cyborg Control – Man Or Astroman
Look Back And Laugh – Minor Threat
Jetson’s Theme – Man… or Astroman?
The Future – Leonard Cohen

Stranger in a Strange Land 2013-02-23: The Future by The Stranger on Mixcloud

Olde Times are Goode Times

At the request and behest of our esteemed guest, who arrives just too late and right on, we exemplify how the olden times are the besten times, with music from the turn of the Swingin’ Century, slowly evolving as have our petty mindsets. Some political rations and weird subsidies later, you arrive in the Strangeland.

So stick around for the BONUS segment where fellow Revengerist Dr. Tasty reacts to the show and current events, and lo, the Earth mightily trembles.

BONUS:

PLAYLIST
In The Hall Of The Mountain King – Will Bradley-Ray McKinley Band
For Old Times’ Sake – Annette Hanshaw
Ragtime Regiment Band (1913) – Heidelberg Quintet with Billy Murray
Frog Legs Rag (1906) – James Scott
Original Rags (Piano Roll) – Scott Joplin
Hobomoko – John Philip Sousa Band
Pozzo – Frisco Jass Band
Dixie Jass Band One Step – The Original Dixieland Jazz Band
Alexander’s Ragtime Band – Ethel Merman, Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Sophie Tucker
Lady Is A Tramp – Sophie Tucker
Changes – Bing Crosby
Paul Whiteman – The Charleston
Everything Is Hotsy Totsy Now – The California Ramblers
Maple Leaf Rag – Bix Beiderbecke
Down South Camp Meeting – Fletcher Henderson
Night And Day – Django Reinhardt & Stéphane Grappelli
Making Whoopee – Eddie Cantor
Let’s Misbehave – Irene Bordoni
Anything Goes – Cole Porter
You Do Something to Me – Billy May & The Andrews Sisters
Canned Heat (1947) – Chet Atkins
Jolly Banker – Woody Guthrie
Old Blind Sow, She Stole the Middlins – John W. Summers
Death of J.B. Marcum – Asa Martin
I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive – Hank Williams, Sr.
I’m Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town – Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five
Juke Box Boogie Woogie Chick – Snookum Russell
Jumpin At The Jubilee – Big Joe Turner
Finger poppin time – Hank Ballard & the Midnighters
The Stuf Is Here – Cleo Brown
Powerhouse – Spike Jones
Rhapsody In Blue – George Gershwin & Paul Whiteman
Frankie And Jonny – Gene Vincent
My Baby Don’t Love Me No More (1957) – Happy Wainwright & The VI-Counts
Red Hot – Billy Lee Riley
Rink-A-Din-Ki-Do – The Edsels
All Right, Baby – Janis Martin
I’m Getting Sentimental Over You – Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
Runaway – Del Shannon

Stranger in a Strange Land 2012-06-16: Olde Times are Goode Times by The Stranger on Mixcloud

http://s.ytimg.com/yt/swfbin/watch_as3-vflTL1Rpm.swf

Time Wars

Picture: Alan Cleaver (CC)

Science fiction is tackling the issue of economic inequality using the metaphor of rationed time and mortality. Radical blogger and professor of ‘cultural analysis’ Mark Fisher doesn’t see this as too far from the truth.

His writing examines autonomy, workerism, post-Marxism, post-Fordism, punk, post-punk, neoliberalism, new atheism and anarchism. As fear of losing one’s job, debt closing in, mortality, apocalypse, the devastating end of capitalism or Malthusian collapse tick away in our background, all of us feel that constant tremor, further emphasized by the endless updates to our devices, making us addicted to our own anxiety. Society stalls and experimental innovation is crushed under the systemic pressure of time constraints. As he writes:  “Given all of this, it is clear that most political struggles at the moment amount to a war over time.”

Via Gonzo Circus:

For most workers, there is no such thing as the long term. As sociologist Richard Sennett put it in his book The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism, the post-Fordist worker “lives in a world marked … by short-term flexibility and flux … Corporations break up or join together, jobs appear and disappear, as events lacking connection.” Throughout history, humans have learned to come to terms with the traumatic upheavals caused by war or natural disasters, but “[w]hat’s peculiar about uncertainty today,” Sennett points out, “is that it exists without any looming historical disaster; instead it is woven into the everyday practices of a vigorous capitalism.”

It isn’t only work that has become more tenuous. The neoliberal attacks on public services, welfare programmes and trade unions mean that we are increasingly living in a world deprived of security or solidarity. The consequence of the normalisation of uncertainty is a permanent state of low-level panic. Fear, which attaches to particular objects, is replaced by a more generalised anxiety, a constant twitching, an inability to settle.

The consequence is a strange kind of existential state, in which exhaustion bleeds into insomniac overstimulation (no matter how tired we are, there is still time for one more click) and enjoyment and anxiety co-exist (the urge to check emails, for instance, is both something we must do for work and a libidinal compulsion, a psychoanalytic drive that is never satisfied no matter how many messages we receive). The fact that the smart phone makes cyberspace available practically anywhere at anytime means that boredom (or at least the old style, ‘Fordist’ boredom) has effectively been eliminated from social life. Yet boredom, like death, posed existential challenges that are far more easily deferred in the always-on cyberspatial environment. Ultimately, communicative capitalism does not vanquish boredom so much as it “sublates” it, seeming to destroy it only to preserve it in a new synthesis. The characteristic affective tonality for the insomniac drift of cyberspace, in which there is always one more click to make, one more update to check, combines fascination with boredom. We are bored even as we are fascinated, and the limitless distraction allows us to evade confronting death – even as death is closing in on us.

Read more of Mark’s work, or his twitter.

TO THE FUTURE!

We’ll glean some idea of what futurists and musicians predict in relation to environmentalism, race, science, the cyber war, protest movements, politicians and even sexy space lounging as we attach either our stylin’ headphones and/or augmented reality time goggles, and dream of tomorrow!

All that and robot dinosaurs, on this week’s Stranger in a Strange Land!

PLAYLIST
In The Hall Of The Mountain King (Terramix) – terraon
I, Robot – Alan Parsons Project
Future M B End-Gem – Shiva Chandra
Future Legend/Space Oddity – David Bowie
Forecast Fascist Future – Of Montreal
Here & Now – RjD2
Future Shock – Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions
I Can See The Future (Ski’s Main Mix) – Incognito
Dark Future – Cyrus (Random Trio)
tomorrow comes today – Gorillaz
The Future, Wouldn’t That Be Nice? – The Books
Tomorrow Never Knows – Daniel Johnston
Strange – Built to Spill
Tomorrow – Thievery Corporation
Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now) – The Flaming Lips
In a Future Age – Wilco
Cyborg Control – Man Or Astroman
Someday – The Joe Beats Conspiracy
Bionic Kahaan – DJ Shadow Djmedjyou
We Are the Future – Non Phixion
Voyager – Zombectro
A Better Tomorrow – Automator
Post-Apocalyptic Rap Blues – Busdriver
Future – Sun Ra
In the Year 2525 – Zager & Evans
The Future Belongs To The Children – Gandalf The Grey
Tomorrow’s Gonna Be A Brighter – Jim Croce
In A Spaceage Mood – JG Thirlwell
Tales of the Future – Vangelis

Stranger in a Strange Land 2012-02-24: TO THE FUTURE! by The Stranger on Mixcloud

Strange Days Have Found Us

Well, we’ve really done it. Ze Black Waffle and I have returned triumphant from waging the Robot War for the Future against SpaceWeb and its mechanical forces of cold calculation. We are safe from the existential threat of malevolent, artificially-intelligent automata… for now.

Unfortunately, in preventing a horrific potential future from coming to pass, we may have accidentally set into motion an equally-dystopian (if somewhat less lazer-burning) future of corporate takeover and constitutional debauchment! We sincerely apologize if the butterflies we crushed in our reckless traversing of spacetime resulted in the awful offshoot reality of japanese earthquakes, #NDAA, #SOPA, and #DNF (Duke Nukem Forever). Sorry about all that.

I am impassively dedicated to covering the disturbing developments as they formalize and gel into our present, with Mutiny News, twitter, and The Stranger in a Strange Land. We welcome your insights, shared posts, rantings, musings, and dark prophecies, as each unfolding event of doom is rewritten newly before us.

Archived Stranger in a Strange Land shows from the Imperial era are being lovingly polished, annotated, timestamped and uploaded, both on the Mixcloud and on the Stranger‘s own blog of Absurdist Noir. Sadly, the same timequake that causes the fabric of reality to tremble EVEN NOW is also responsible for the loss of several of those archived shows. We soldier on, all of us, into the dark unknown.

For the the most multifarious (that’s multifaceted + nefarious) tunes and freshly-lacquered commentary, check out the Stranger in a Strange Land, Sat. 2am-4am (that’s Friday night going into Saturday mornings). For interviews involving eclectic esoterica, write to thestranger@earthling.net. For general Mutiny Radio coverage, send your aggregated articles, accomplishments, muckraking investigations, and fluffy public interest pieces to thestranger@earthling.net. For that money I owe you, see me next Friday..

What’s the Matter With That Cat There?

10/23/32

The Stranger reels to you from some tip-top joint in time, stranded in 1932. Straight from his yap through the aether to your radio tubes, on the level, square, news-comment and music that you require to prepare for these tumultuous days ahead.

PLAYLIST
Ben Selvin – Who Am I?
Jack Hylton & His Orchestra – You’re Blasé
George Gershwin & Paul Whiteman – Rhapsody In Blue
Cab Calloway – Reefer Man
Bing Crosby – Brother Can You Spare A Dime
Vernon Dalhart – The Runaway Train
Fred Astaire – Puttin’ On The Ritz
Ted Lewis & His Band – Just A Gigolo
Louis Armstrong – All of Me
Billy Murray – Ghost That Never Walked
Bessie Smith – I Ain’t Got No Body (I’m Thus a Ghost!)
Isham Jones & His Orchestra – I’m So Afraid Of You
Harpo Marx – Everyone Says I Love You
Annette Hanshaw – Fit As A Fiddle
Frankie Trumbauer & His Orchestra – Georgia On My Mind
Clarence Williams – You Rascal You
Fletcher Henderson – Sing, Sing, Sing
Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians – Soft Lights And Sweet Music
Blind Willie Johnson – John The Revelator
Memphis Jug Band – He’s In The Jailhouse Now
Blind Willie McTell – Southern Can Is Mine
Jungle Band – Rocking in Rhythm
Jimmie Rodgers – No Hard Times
Jackson County Barn Owls – Bake That Chicken Pie
Abe Lyman – High Society
Gene Austin – Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone
Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra – Strangers
George Olsen – Say It Isn’t So

Don’t fear his mystical moniker, the Stranger is a friend, no narker, no nitwit, and will soon go back to his own fine decade in his own pleasant time once he’s gotten the bugs out of this thingamajig! (Might this message reach its destination)

Stranger in a Strange Land 2009-10-24: Circa 1932 by The Stranger on Mixcloud

~The Stranger
thestranger@earthling.net

“I believe he’s losin’ his mind.”
“I believe he’s lost his mind.”

Time Has Come Today!

10/17/09
Join this perilous venture through the sands of time, pushing aside the veil of history and exploring the story of mankind on this spinning pebble (and a bit off once or twice as well). But delving into these tumultuous and dangerous pools, each droplet an electron of recorded experience, we hope not to disturb the fated unchangeable tomes with our wacky free will and random chance.

To the Natural State of Man: Murder, Mayhem, Invention, War, and Dance!

PLAYLIST
The Marimba Belles – In The Hall Of The Mountain King
Walt Dickerson and Sun Ra – Light Years
Uriah Heap – Traveller In Time
Jimmy Castor Bunch – Troglodyte (Cave Man)
Don Drummond & The Skatalites – Mesopotamia
They Might Be Giants – The Mesopotamians
Cream – Tales Of Brave Ulysses
Skatalites – King Solomon
Power Of Zeus – The Sorcerer Of Isis
Steve Martin – King Tut
Desmond Dekker – Israelites
Prince Buster – Dance Cleopatra
Led Zeppelin – Immigrant Song
Os Mutantes – Ave Genghis Khan
Spinal Tap – Stonehenge
Slavek Hanzlik – Pagan Feast
Peter & Gordon – Knights In Rusty Armour
William Shatner – King Henry The Fifth
Joe Fingers Carr – Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Wooden Ships
Bob Marley – Slave Driver
Procol Harum – Conquistador
Firesign Theatre – Temporarily Humbolt County
Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods – Billy Don’t Be A Hero
Warren Zevon – Frank And Jesse James
Spike Jones – Der Führer’s Face
Harry Nilsson – Spaceman
King Crimson – 21st Century Schizoid Man
The Chambers Brothers – Time Has Come Today
The United States Of America – Stranded In Time

PLEASE KEEP ARMS AND HANDS INSIDE THE PROGRAM FOR THE DURATION OF INFINITY. PLEASE REMAIN IN YOUR SEATBELTS UNTIL YOUR DJ HAS TURNED OFF THE ‘FASTEN SEAT BELT SIGNS.’ OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CHANGED BY THE OBSERVATION OF THE OBSERVER.

Stranger in a Strange Land 2009-10-17: Time Has Come Today by The Stranger on Mixcloud

~The Stranger
thestranger@earthling.net

“will see you in time.”

Longplaya: Dark Side of the Moon

As part of Pirate Cat Radio’s Longplaya series (two hours, one DJ, one album), The Stranger takes us through a prog journey of one of the finest albums ever produced, Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’. A healthy bit of intoxicant, a studio full of drunken (but friendly) louts, stoned memories, and your calls.

1	Pink Floyd	Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
Introduction and News
2	Pink Floyd	Speak To Me
3	Pink Floyd	Breathe
4	Pink Floyd	On The Run
5	Pink Floyd	Shine On Your Crazy Diamond
Synchronizing Memories
6	Pink Floyd	Time
7	Pink Floyd	The Great Gig In the Sky
Guests and Pink Floyd lovers
8	Pink Floyd	Several Species of Furry Animals
Interview clips
9	Roger Waters	Radio Waves
En Memoriam: Richard Wright
10	Pink Floyd	Money
Talkin’ ’bout Syd Barrett
11	Pink Floyd	Us and them
12	Pink Floyd	Any Colour You Like
Floyd Haters!
13	Pink Floyd	Brain Damage
14	Pink Floyd	Eclipse
Eras of Floyd
15	Pink Floyd	Julia dream
16	Pink Floyd	Bike
17	Pink Floyd	The Nile Song
Floyducation
18	Pink Floyd	Hey You