Big Wheel

I don't agree at all with what he would do with the station if he were in charge. But I do think that his overall grievance with station governance sounds like a valid one. If Columbia's institutional relationship to WKCR is like Harvard's to WHRB (and unlike BU's to WBUR), then the situation he's describing isn't very fair.

Right. You can argue on the margins all you want about who should get an extra hour here or there. Personally, this particular decision seemed pretty clear-cut to me--the game was a big one and the precedent was to air the game, but overall, that's pretty small potatoes. The management question that LED to such an issue, however, is not.

There are two issues here: an audience issue and a management issue. There's no reason, in theory, that a compromise couldn't be reached on the audience issue so that students could get their sports some of the time and the jazz and classical departments also get their time. If a couple of hours of jazz or classical are cut out to make way for sports, some people will bitch but overall I wouldn't consider it the end of the world. If students were allowed to really make management decisions, my guess is that they would not go beyond minor scheduling tweaks. I highly doubt that they would throw away their considerable audience by drastically changing to a "college" format. The real problem is the management issue. I don't know what WKCR's history or charter is like but my station, Harvard's WHRB, has always been a student-run affair. WHRB is a registered student organization at Harvard, uses Harvard facilities, and, as such, is subject to the rules governing student organizations. These rules stipulate that alumni trustees are to play only an advisory role--NOT to be decision-makers. At WHRB, however, the longtime chairman of the board of trustees exerts a de facto veto power over all station management decisions--and has been known to meddle with station affairs on numerous occasions, even to the level of what airs when. This is a guy who was the classical music director back in 1966 or so and pretty much considers jazz and rock (which take up 2/3 of the station's programming) to be degenerate forms of music. The result: programming has pretty much ossified, and classical always seems to get the lion's share of prime airtime. Got a jazz or rock orgy you want to run? Have fun running it from 1 to 7 in the morning!

I do get a kick out of the transnational appeal of the show. There are quite a few spinoffs, including: Singapore Idol Malaysian Idol Indonesian Idol

I'm not sure how exactly how much we got in Cambridge but my guess is at least 24 inches. It's up past my knees in the unplowed places. Snow football was fun until the wind really started picking up and blowing ice in our faces at 30+ MPH. Still a bit too powdery for good sledding. Crossing my fingers and hoping I don't have to go to work tomorrow.

Only just starting to come down in the Beantown area now. Going out to play snow football on (hopefully) snow-covered astroturf later tonight. If 48 hours go by and I haven't posted again, you can safely assume I've gotten hypothermia out there.

You can get the Col. Sanders stuff among others at Bill Carrothers's site: http://www.carrothers.com/billyboy/comedyjukebox.htm

They may not all make a quarter million, but every story I've heard about girls stripping in Miami starts with "it was an easy way to put herself through college." With tuition through the roof, it sounds like a stripper can pay for 4 years of a $25000/year college with only a couple of years of stripping.

This is the video of Ali G speaking at my college commencement. I'm pretty glad I wasn't sitting anywhere near my grandparents for this...

Barry lives about two miles from my house in Miami. Personally I think it was long past time for him to quit, as that shit had gotten OLD for me. Still an original voice, though.

Are you referring to the Forest Cafe? I think it was under construction for several months last year...haven't checked it out yet as I seem to remember the food was a bit expensive for a student (at least compared to the dirt cheap taquerias around Harvard and Porter Squares--Anna's, Boca Grande, and Felipe's). Will have to check it out sometime. Also, one of my very favorite restaurants, Chez Henri, is about a block and a half down the street.

Spending the occasional Sunday afternoon at Stereo Jack's was one of my favorite pastimes. And since it looks like I'll be moving back to Cambridge, it'll continue to be!

An Asian cookbook I just got as a gift talks about how there are a lot of Westerners who say they hate cilantro but actually really enjoy it in combination with certain other foods (i.e., they hate it in salsa but love it in a Thai salad). So the preference for cilantro seems to be somewhat context-dependent.

Trevor Lawrence?

Hm, I was going to guess Lamont Johnson, as there's a guy by that name who did some R&B work on bass and vocals (dunno if it was a Motown label tho). But that Jackie CD has already been issued...

Did this person play on only one BN album, or were there more?

Awesome spice info page here: http://www-ang.kfunigraz.ac.at/~katzer/engl/

I didn't realize until recently that cilantro and coriander were the same thing. Used in Asian foods as much as in Mexican. Anyone ever tried culantro? Supposed to be similar to cilantro, but stronger.

Probably not, but get Leapin' and Lopin' anyway. Worst-case scenario, you upgrade and sell the old version on the board to somebody who doesn't like RVG's remastering. You should not go another week without hearing it.

I was wondering the same thing myself. Which trumpeter is it that takes the muted solos on Moanin'? Also, does anyone know whatever happened to the guitar player? His tone seems very much out of the T-Bone Walker school, but it looked like he had some nice jazz chops, too. Also, the Brazilian commercials are a trip. One of them is for export quality wool textiles--not finished clothes, just the fabric and how it was everyone's choice for exporting. Made me wonder if most of the Brazilians who owned TVs in 1963 were rich businessmen who dealt with such things.

I just went to the movies with a good friend whose birthday is coming up. Instead of gifts this year, he's going to ask everyone to make a donation to one of the relief agencies.

Well, the amount pledged so far is only $15 million I think, not 50 million. When you consider that the cost of the inauguration is going to be $30-40 million--not even counting security costs, I think it's a fair topic for debate.

Did Ira Sullivan play much alto back in the day?

I just watched the first half tonight. Reaction:

Marian McPartland?