Christmas in the rubble.

   “Sir Egbert offered to show them his famous sofa. Alice felt a shudder of nameless apprehension.”

Here’s the recording of last night’s Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg (CA), ready for you to re-enjoy:

…

Meanwhile, thanks to Hank Sims of Lost Coast Outpost here’s a page with lots of other MOTA shows going back quite a way. And thanks to the Anderson Valley Advertiser, which often provides more than an hour of each of these fast-paced nthomearly-eight-hour Friday night shows’ most locally relevant material, going back decades. And consider KNYO, the Little Lion in Fort Bragg, California. Find KNYO‘s hidden shiny red donation heart and help the station out. It sure could use it, especially now.

The last hour of this particular show is the sound from a 2011 performance of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at Mendocino Theater Company’s Helen Schoeni Theater. The scenery was amazing. Tiny Tim was authentically tiny. The gigantic spook puppet with the pointing finger was terrifying. Costumes, including the shoes, were authentic. You can really hear that; a lot of it sounds like a clog dance, just like real life in those far-off antique days. But before that, from 9pm to 4am, I read stories by Paul Modic and David Herstle Jones, Manuel Vicent (translated by Louis S. Bedrock), Sonia Sulaiman, Mike Sears (I think; David Gurney sent it, and he hates him, so I don’t know). Craig Louis Stehr, out of medical danger for the moment, refined his scheme to rid the world of what he calls the demonic. Sojourna Lee warned us of a vindictive tenacious professional squatter. There’s Philip Zwerling, PhD. Eugene Knapik of 27thStreet. Wendy Doniger, Richard Luscombe, etc. Poetry by Notty Bumbo and Hafiz. Angelique Richardson on the poetry of war. Edward Abbey on his college days and early sabotage in New Mexico. Eleanor Cooney’s latest installment of the visonary German Goose Girl saga. Kaushik Patowary on the Nazi SS false-flag Gliwice (say GLEE-veet-seh) radio station takeover that started World War Two. Veronica Kane on the 14th Amendment. Harper’s Review, the Clown strike, the college teacher strike, Linda Geddes of The Guardian on the elevated holiday danger of penile trauma. Gizmodo’s story of recent discoveries in ancient Scythian use of human skin for leather 2,500 years ago. The story of a ten-million-dollar law suit over a weed farm raid where the cops cuffed and bound everybody, destroyed the crop, sampled the product, stole money and valuables, threw a party, called out for 57 pizzas, shut off the power and water, set the house on fire, left phones and personal items behind, and it turned out the farm was on Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian land, was 100% legal, and oops. Bruno Ruhland’s calm memoir of growing weed in Boonville in 1982. Clifford Allen Sanders about Navarro Ridge in 1969. Doug Holland, Flynne Washburne, Rebecca Solnit, Kent Wallace. Mitch Clogg’s state of arterial health. Thom Hartmann again on the ripoff of so-called Medicare Advantage plans, which are not Medicare at all. Garrison Keillor on propriety. Anthony Burgess on Jewish humor. Selected jokes from Quora. Anthony Scibelli for McSweeneys. Abortion. My dream journal, Friedrich Engels, the 28th annual Trail-of-Tears 100-mile Nome Cult Walk. The Yikes, a deliberately forgotten people. Sarah Biren’s story of the bad old days of trouble for interracial couples and one such couple whose love outlived all their horrid tormentors. A story of His Violent Rapey Holiness Master Brother David. Emily Gaudette on why historical animal cartoon characters so often wore gloves but no pants. Larry Bensky, on whom youth was not wasted. And Lucky Me, by Ezekiel Krahlin, a story told in nested pee-esses and addenda. An hour of announcements. And MOTA-traditional Christmastime music for all the breaks. Whew.

I’d like to read your writing on the radio. Just email it to me. Or include it in a reply to this post. Or send me a link to your writing project and I’ll take it from there. Just, if it has swears I have to wait till 10pm local time to read it, so not to agitate the swear weasels.

As usual, here’s a virtual shipping container bulging with not-necessarily-radio-useful but worthwhile items that I set aside for you, mainly thanks to the fine websites listed to your right. This treasure pile is a byproduct of gathering the show together:

Rerun: The Singing Dundee Sisters. One magical Christmas in 1947.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSBpvh4y_lU

“Your Christmas tree. A symbol of joy, or a blazing death torch?” For Hunter S. Thompson, it was both. Also bats.
https://www.weirduniverse.net/blog/comments/burning_christmas_trees

A short, suspenseful family film. (18 min.)
https://nagonthelake.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-family-circus.html

Robert Earl Keene – Merry Christmas From the Family.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P37xPiRz1sg

Harmonics.
https://misscellania.blogspot.com/2023/12/tweet-of-day_0295930532.html

Celebrating 20 years of FactCheck.org.
https://nagonthelake.blogspot.com/2023/12/happy-20th-anniversary-factcheckorg.html

Jethro Tull – Living In The Past (live, 1976).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m__wmsIn99E

Bobby Vee – Electric Trains and You.
http://www.weirduniverse.net/blog/comments/electric_trains_and_you

Occupied.
https://www.bitsandpieces.us/2023/12/15/reimagining-a-christmas-classic/

Page through Krampus cards from Kristmas past. (via BoingBoing)
https://www.instagram.com/p/C0euXShSh4o/

Snoo.
https://ukiyo-e.org/search?q=Kawase+Hasui+snow

Art.
https://myonebeautifulthing.com/2023/12/20/jef-bourgeau/

Edvard Munch’s /Sweater Dog/.
https://misscellania.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-scream.html

Betty Boop was originally a dog. She was an anthropomorphic French poodle. Here she is in Max Fleischer’s /Dizzy Dishes/, her first appearance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Boop

“Wheels up.”
https://nagonthelake.blogspot.com/2023/12/theres-magic-in-all-of-us.html

Li’l Boo Thang. (via MyOneBeautifulThang)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qNnNYSdcYQ

“Naw, that ain’t right. Watch me now, like this: One, two, step, and /point/.” (via Fark)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Nutcracker_Rehearsals_Nov_005_(31008608485).jpg

“And good old Jamaican ginger flakes.” “It’s Jelly Week!” (via b3ta)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18h39WqLvPQ

Phoebe Waller-Bridge reads a tale of avian misery. (via NagOnTheLake)
https://vimeo.com/196277011

Christmas in deserted Yorkshire. The electricity is on. Maybe everybody’s just inside.
https://tackyraccoons.com/2023/12/21/christmas-in-yorkshire/

The Lemon Drop Kid. (Full film, no ads, 90 min.) (via b3ta)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nem4xRayVFs

Trombone and Spanish guitar duet, Waltz of the Flowers. I’m told it takes tremendous skill and control to play a trombone this quietly, which is why you don’t see very many duets of these instruments. (via b3ta)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpTZUHR5rik

Guitar things everybody does wrong. Don’t bail at the ad; there’s a second half.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2hqDz4yE28

Unwholesome love. (via This Isn’t Happiness)
https://www.instagram.com/fictopicto/p/C1Ffd7nRus4/

Leonardo DiCaprio and Johnny Depp back when they were puppies. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, the full excellent film, though punctuated here by fourteen commercials. (2 hours)
https://misscellania.blogspot.com/2023/12/whats-eating-gilbert-grape.html

Movie trailers are cut up and jammed together to make something pretty stirring.
https://laughingsquid.com/movie-trailer-mashup-2023/

“It’s tragic to realize that the only thing that matches the enormity of this achievement is its failure.”
https://theawesomer.com/solstice-5-short-sci-fi-film/724839/

A kind of clock. Short attention span? Skip ahead to 10:50.
https://theawesomer.com/3d-printed-roller-coaster-clock/725218/

Some Gilliamesque Xmas Stop-O-Mation. (via b3ta)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHubm5oYJWc

Can these numbers be right? That’s more than five times a day in Spain, France, Italy and that PacMan-shaped one. Can everyone in those countries all be prepping for a colonoscopy every day of their lives? I want to say, to be funny, /That explains a lot,/ but it doesn’t explain anything.
https://www.bitsandpieces.us/2023/12/16/now-thats-a-shtty-study/

The original Flying Flea. “It seems to be the poor man’s dream of flying come true. It’s amazing and amusing.” “This very interesting aerial machine may one day be the motorcycle of the future.”
http://www.weirduniverse.net/blog/comments/the_flying_flea

Colorful cars.
https://jalopnik.com/our-favorite-cars-from-macchinissima-italian-car-show-1851108776

Piano Paper Planes. (via Kottke.org)
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cyoi013rJ-G/

An assortment of jolly ethnic Santas. (IMPROVED LINK, NOW WITH MORE SANTAS) (via NagOnTheLake)
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1737939992729817165

Amaze yourself.
https://mazegenerator.net/

“Did you put out the slag?” “Yes! Stop nagging me!” Putting out the slag. (via b3ta)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-908m2B-Fg

“It was a small, dedicated crew on hand for the great moment.” /This/ is America, right here.
https://boingboing.net/2023/12/19/watch-a-13-year-old-evel-knievel-superfan-attempt-to-jump-10-trash-cans-on-his-bicycle-video.html

Now I know where to find you.
https://nagonthelake.blogspot.com/2023/12/now-i-know-where-to-find-you.html

They’re tryin’ to wash us away.
https://www.vintag.es/2023/12/1927-mississippi-flood.html

Randy Newman – Louisiana.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGs2iLoDUYE

Waves propagating in the medium of sheep. (via Cliff Pickover)
https://twitter.com/i/status/1737994632045182989

Mary, Joseph, the Three Wise Men, and the Holy Giant Rat.
https://misscellania.blogspot.com/2023/12/tweet-of-day_0808329586.html

Campers. (via Tacky Raccoons)
https://bustednuckles.net/camping-saturday-resurrected/

These creatures have survived all five of Earth’s mass extinctions, and here is a single one of their fractal-Christmassy eggs. (via Tacky Raccoons)
https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1735547334178529656

For the egg file (that is, the file of pictures of women I’d like to watch swallow an egg).
https://www.vintag.es/2023/12/ina-balke.html

Land of ice and fire, live. (via Fark)
https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/news/2023/12/18/volcanic_eruption_has_started

Art of Roger Dean. Some of the album covers are here..
https://sfae.com/Artists/Roger-Dean

Canada’s answer to Dark Shadows. (via PerfectForRoquefortCheese)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AWO3f7PM2Y

The traditional high-rez 1925 office Xmas party photo. Navigate about it, examine every pore. Choose a favorite person. In previous years I liked the one on the floor, lower left, best. This year I see them as the cast of a 1925 version of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Go on, assign them, one-to-one. There’s Morn. There’s Major Kira. There’s the scheming, treacherous Kai Winn. Both Daxes, Leeta, Garak; Odo is the tree… Which reminds me, it occurred to me that Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene are the Duras Sisters from another flavor of Star Trek. There are so many flavors, it’s hard to keep up. (LB and MTG don’t look very like the Duras Sisters, but they act like them, and they scheme disastrously adolescently Klingonly like them.)
https://www.shorpy.com/node/5120?size=_original#caption

David Gilmour’s guitar solo on Comfortably Numb slightly Hendrixified.
https://laughingsquid.com/david-gilmour-solo-jimi-hendrix/

What those crazy kids get up to in the gym at night. (via Tacky Raccoons)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiQxj1UA1_0

A straw man walking a red herring up a slippery slope on his way to the comment section:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10162990660513219

Star Wars told without Star Wars.
https://misscellania.blogspot.com/2015/12/star-wars-minus-star-wars.html

“Can you even imagine way back in the time when they thought thunder was caused by angry gods fighting on top of a mountain.”
https://nagonthelake.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-moment-volcano-erupts.html

Weasel sex. “It looks just like killing.” “On the bright side, it goes on for about 90 minutes, so there’s that.”
https://laughingsquid.com/kitten-snake-mustelids/

Suddenly Last Summer. (via Perfect For Roquefort Cheese) (full film, no ads, 2 hours)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngqlpNDfQNs

How they fool ya. A math prayer. (via b3ta)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOCsdhzo6Jg

Result of the equation for a single leg.
https://t.co/wiQEn0dt9b

Constructing a Lego sand drawing machine.
https://theawesomer.com/lego-sand-drawing-machine/725133/

And the Vintage Photo Booth. (Scroll down and down.)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/VintagePhotoBooth