"the only way to take Rush Limbaugh down"

So, having successfully taken the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives (all of which will enable the taking of the Supreme Court), the Progressive front perceives itself to be sitting pretty. I get that.

And the Republican party having apparently forgotten what it's about, the most influential conservatives in the country may well be Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. I get that too.

So, the Daily Kos' FreeSociety now suggests:

It is clear that Limbaugh is going to give Obama the "Clinton treatment" for the next 8* years, and worse, the GOP will in lockstep follow this same agenda and play the role of obstructionist to the core. It is clear that Obama counter-attacking Limbaugh, while helpful for his "base", will have no meaningful effect on this. It is clear that Democratic Party members counter-attacking Limbaugh, while evidence of "a pulse", will have no meaningful effect on this.

But one thing will: Humor/satire

Recall that the one time when Limbaugh faced a little dip in his popularity, and the Democrats unexpectedly averted losing more seats in 1996, and 1998, came after Al Franken's book "Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot" had gained significant public attention.

Recall, also that Obama had indeed fallen behind John McCain in the polls, once Sarah Palin was picked, and that she was initially very popular. The Corporate Media could have easily overlooked and ignored her poor performance in a couple of interviews (as they had also happily done on behalf of Bush Jr., Cheney, and McCain himself), had it not been for the totally unexpected phenomena of Tina Fey's brilliant satire that then became the story, like a runaway train and impossible to stop.

A significant percentage of voters were unable to tell the difference between Tina Fey's caricature and the actual Sarah Palin. (Quotes attributed to Palin were actually uttered by Tina Fey, among them the infamous "I can see Russia from my house.") I'm not sure if that's due to "brilliant satire", wishful thinking, or just dumb luck, but OK. Let that go.

I have to say, though, that this explains a lot of what I heard on Air America. Six hours of airtime were devoted to two comedians (Janeane Garofalo and Al Franken) who weren't trying to be funny.

* Optimist.

Whatever happened to...

...that guy who was on Jeopardy! like 74 days in a row and won $2.52 million dollars? Huh?

Well, he wrote a book (duh), wrote another book (hm), co-invented a couple of trivia games and (like everyone else) has a blog. It was on that blog that he recently noted he'd stumbled upon the perfect summation of public radio in a single sentence. Go, read and be amazed.

"God is in the details. But there are no details anymore."

waveforms, precious little waveforms
Originally uploaded by altemark.

Rolling Stone | The Death of High Fidelity
David Bendeth, a producer who works with rock bands like Hawthorne Heights and Paramore, knows that the albums he makes are often played through tiny computer speakers by fans who are busy surfing the Internet. So he's not surprised when record labels ask the mastering engineers who work on his CDs to crank up the sound levels so high that even the soft parts sound loud.

Over the past decade and a half, a revolution in recording technology has changed the way albums are produced, mixed and mastered — almost always for the worse. "They make it loud to get [listeners'] attention," Bendeth says. Engineers do that by applying dynamic range compression, which reduces the difference between the loudest and softest sounds in a song. Like many of his peers, Bendeth believes that relying too much on this effect can obscure sonic detail, rob music of its emotional power and leave listeners with what engineers call ear fatigue. "I think most everything is mastered a little too loud," Bendeth says. "The industry decided that it's a volume contest."

Producers and engineers call this "the loudness war," and it has changed the way almost every new pop and rock album sounds. But volume isn't the only issue. Computer programs like Pro Tools, which let audio engineers manipulate sound the way a word processor edits text, make musicians sound unnaturally perfect. And today's listeners consume an increasing amount of music on MP3, which eliminates much of the data from the original CD file and can leave music sounding tinny or hollow. "With all the technical innovation, music sounds worse," says Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, who has made what are considered some of the best-sounding records of all time. "God is in the details. But there are no details anymore."

Ah, you young people. You don't remember.

Way back when FM radio first began to crawl out of its niche and into the mainstream, it sounded beautiful. Compared to the tinny crackle of AM, FM was clean, pure sound, with clear, dynamic highs and quiet lows -- and, almost unheard-of (so to speak) today, the occasional moment of true silence.

Today, I can't hear the difference between AM and FM. The sound I used to associate with FM one must now buy satellite radio to get. The conspicuous exception is public radio. I can't tell for sure if they are actually maintaining the same standards they always have, or have simply not drifted as far downwards, but compared to it, listening to other music stations is like being beaten with a blunt instrument.

I'm dreaming of a white Halloween

Tacky Christmas
Originally uploaded by ulla*.

You'll never guess what happened yesterday.

Well, that's a lie. You'll guess quite easily if you live in Kansas City. The lucky listeners of KCKC (Star 102.1) are now among the first in the nation to enjoy all-Christmas music, all the time.

Yes, on Halloween.

Crosstown rival Cuddle 98.1 wasted little time in doing the same, today, November 1.

Meanwhile, Walmart is making five of its "Black Friday" specials available tomorrow.

CORRECTION: The first radio station to flip their format to all-Christmas in 2007 was WNOU Indianapolis, who did the deed on October 8 to begin their "93 Days of Christmas". Incidentally, they're also getting their "contemporary hit" audience out of the habit of listening to them, since they're changing their call letters to WEXM and their format to all-talk effective January 9. But there's still a WNOU, since WYJX has bought the station's call letters, format, intellectual property, and as many of the existing staff as are willing to make the move. I really don't understand the radio industry.