Thursday, March 30, 2006

Episode 9 of the Schnauzer Logic Podcast Posted... (No. 9... No. 9... No. 9...)


Sonovista, My Friends!!! Episode 9 of the Schnauzer Logic Podcast is online and as we race towards our 10th episode anniversary, next week, we're picking up comedic steam...

First, before we get into the show notes, a great thanks go out to John DeKoven for coming down to the Schnauzer studios and sitting in for the vacationing Parviz, who's off schtupping his wife... John, for those who don't know, is a comedy impresario and the chief yuckety yuck of Laugh-A-Lot Productions, and drove down from Pleasanton in an obvious state of pulmonary distress to co-host and play a round of Win John DeKoven's Money. Thanks also go out to Mike Lema and Erin King who both offered to co-host, and Theresa Benson, who offered to co-host and wrote an amazing review in the iTunes music store. In the coming weeks we'll give everyone a chance to co-host, either in the studios, or on the phones, as time and logistics permit... so many thanks, and if you're reading this and also interested in co-hosting some future segment, just drop me a note and we'll add you to the list.

OK... on to the show notes:

In honor of the upcoming start to the 2006 baseball season (April 3rd) we played a famous outtake of legendary Baltimore Orioles manger Earl Weaver responding to fan questions on The Manager's Corner. I know this is a real recording, but I don't know if it ever made it on the air... if you know, drop us a line...

Starting the show we moved into a show rundown, welcomed back Sean, and learned a bit about John's girlfriend, Helene, who works for Enterprise Rent-A-Car. After the break we got Helene on the phone and played a round of Win John DeKoven's Money, which resulted in a tie (first time ever) and forced us to go to the tiebreaker round, where Helene proved victorious!

We took another break and tackled the question of the week, talking a lot about Hillary Clinton's possible Presidential candidacy and the possible challenge by Condoleezza Rice. We then took our third break and played a song by my friend Fran Bennett (the first tune not from GarageBand.com )

Coming back from the break we ran down the genesis of the "sound" of stand-up comedian Kip Addotta hanging up on me, and played the original audio from 2001. We also played a teaser of a brand-new interview I conducted with Kip earlier this week, which we'll play on next week's 10th-episode anniversary show. For those who want to learn more about Kip before next week's interview, or order his comedy CD's, head over to his web site at www.kipaddotta.com. (and for those who say that no good can come from comedy, be sure to check out Kip's son Victor's master woodworking/furniture business Addotta Fine Woodwork)

We then took our last break and came back with a discussion about FHM magazine's naming of Scarlett Johansson "Sexiest Women". John agreed... Sean was not amused... And we finished with a plug for John's upcoming shows and website (www.laughalotproductions.com )

And with that, here are this week's amazing artists:

1. Dollar Gen from Austin Texas - "Everytime"
2. Genie Dean from Allborg, Denmark - "Wasted"
3. Fran Bennett from San Jose, CA - "Arthritic Rap"
4. Soapbox Paradox from E. Lansing, MI - "Danny!"

And now you know what you didn't know when you didn't know what you knew!

Next week, a big big show... but until then:

Show Up
Pay Attention
Tell The Truth
And Don't Be Attached To The Outcome

namaste
robin

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Question of the Week

Sonovista, my friends! Here it is (better late than never)...

Rank the order in which you think the United States will see:

1. A Woman President
2. A Black President
3. A Jewish President
4. An Asian President
5. A Hispanic President
6. Some combination of the above
7. Other

and why!

see you all wednesday
namaste
robin

Friday, March 24, 2006

New Online Podcast Player!

Sonovista, my friends! Well, i'm not sure what's going on with the very nice folks over at blogexplosion.com, but their online podcast player still hadn't picked up Episode 8 ("the -ocho-") as of 9pm california time, tonight, so i took off my lawyer hat and then my comedy hat and then my psychologist hat and then my podcaster hat and put on my hacker hat and viola! we now have a new online podcast player hosted directly on the schnauzerlogic server, and which should always be up-to-date. major thanks go out to Jeroen Wijering who wrote the underlying flash player code (and is making it available for free under a creative commons license)... please let me know if you're having any problems using the new player... i'm going to see if the player can be modified to permit the actual downloading and saving of the mp3 file (which some of you have asked for)... and if there are any other requests for the online player, just ask.

Have a great weekend... we've gotten a few offers to be a guest co-host, and i'm going to see if i can give everybody a shot (at least for a segment or two, over the next two weeks)... if you're interested and haven't let me know, drop me a line.

And until wednesday (or until something else blows up)... namaste... robin

Episode 8 Not Showing Up in Online Player - Try This Instead...

Sonovista, my friends... i understand that Episode 8 ("the -ocho-") is not showing up in the Blogexplosion online player... it usually take 24 hours for them to update their links, but they're going through some changes, so things may be breaking... i will monitor this and if it doesn't show up by the end of today, i'll look into implementing a different onine player.

In the meanwhile, you can grab the mp3 file, directly, *here* . It should open up in a separate browser window, or in your computer's mp3 player (such as Windows Media Player), depending on your computer.

Any other problems, drop me a note... and thanks for listening!

namaste... robin

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Episode 8 of the Schnauzer Logic Podcast Posted... Two Months and We're Still Here!!!

Sonovista, my friends!!! Episode 8 ("the -ocho -") of the Schnauzer Logic Podcast is online!

Great show, though we once again missed Sean, very much, who was up at UCSF for some more med stuff... If you've got a moment, throw some good thoughts, prayers, karma, juju, or whatever up his way...

OK! Show notes... we've got show notes... This week's opening audio was a little birthday tribute to famed funnyman Jerry Lewis , the original King of Comedy , who turned 80 last week (hey, 80!)... We then dug directly into Parviz's big Dairy Update which turned out to be, there will be no more dairy updates (or so he thinks)... Parviz passed his exams and is going to become a commercial plumber (-insert pipe joke here-) and begins his 5 year plumber apprentice program ("you're fired!") the first week of April... As a result, he and his lovely wife, Melanie, are going to take a much needed vacation, so the next two shows will be sans-Parviz... this means two things: (1) fewer poo jokes (probably) and (b) if you want to be a temporary co-host, send us an email using the button at the top of the page... you can do this by phone and co-host a segment or two... enter the fast-paced and glamourous world of podcasting and impress your friends.

Then we took a break and when we came back we got into the Question of the Week (if you could have any Super Power, which would it be)... lots of listener feedback on this one, with some bizarre answers... worth a listen as it provided a source of rich comedic topsoil! We then dove right into the whole Isaac Hayes /Scientology /Tom Cruise /South Park thing (again) with a LOT of interesting updates, including some audio from back in December with an interview of Isaac on the Opie & Anthony show on XM Satellite Radio ... my take-away: Isaac didn't sound upset back in December and Isaac sounds a little bit nuts... but very entertaining.

More breaks and lots of content. To wit: Jeopardy is offering online qualifying exams next week. If you want to try out (i'm going to!), check out this link *here *. Also some Welcome Back Kotter (the Movie) corrections, a story about a flawed SF Chronicle article on a water taste test, another flawed Reuters article on how Daytime TV makes old women stupid, a brief hint at my letter to the CEO of Delta Airlines in my attempt to get a refund for an expired ticket, and a real non-plumbing-related dairy update, the all new "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!® Squeeze ". Plus other assorted nonsense. Clocking in at 1:49, I think you'll be very entertained.

And with that, here are this week's amazing artists:

1. BB Chung King & The Buddaheads from Burbank, CA - "Company Graveyard"
2. Erik Zai from Pieta, Sweden - "Waters by the Shore"
3. Josh Goode Band from Dallas, Texas - "Spoonful of Thoughts"
4. Tobacco from Copenhagen, Denmark - "France Blues"
5. Bonus Mystery Artist and Song from mmmmphffff ....

And now you know what you didn't know when you didn't know what you knew!

So until next week:

Show Up
Pay Attention
Tell The Truth
And Don't Be Attached To The Outcome

namaste
robin

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Question of the Week

Sonovista, my friends! This week's Question of the Week (which we'll be discussing this coming Wednesday, 3/22 is:

If you could have a superpower, what superpower would you choose, and why?

(i really wanted to ask, "if you could have the power to listen in to people's thoughts about you, would you take it?", but that seemed too cerebral... but you can answer that one instead)

namaste... robin

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Episode 7 of the Schnauzer Logic Podcast Posted... Don't Like The Topic We're Discussing? Just Wait 10 Seconds... It'll Change...

Sonovista, my friends!!! Episode 7 of the Schnauzer Logic Podcast is online!

The show is off the 'juice' and we're back to our 'normal' size of about 90 minutes (and the 'bonefish' are swimming again, as Tony Soprano would say), so all is good. Well, not all good... Sean was MIA after a minor medical setback, but he assured us that he'll be back in the saddle next week, so we're all sending our best thoughts out to Sean for a speedy recovery and quick return (or I can't be held responsible for what happens to Parviz.)

And on to this week's show notes: OK... I admit it... this week's show felt kind of 'fractured' during the recording, thought it came out fairly polished... (like those rock tumblers I played with as a kid, while wearing black socks and sneakers - see photo below) enough grit and liquid and it all shines! We discuss some of our own hospital stories and our Question of the Week (which, I never answer... some things even a rock polisher can't handle) and a lot of entertainment stories (the latest Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies, Issac Hayes leaving South Park, John Travolta and his upcoming role in the movie version of the stage play based on the movie of the John Waters story, "Hairspary, the planned remake of the TV show, Welcome Back, Kotter slated to star Ice Cube , and more)... We also promise to discuss Donald Trump and Howard Stern and this week's American Idol and have a Dairy update, but none of that happens... and frankly, I blame Parviz (ok, blame's not the right word, but I'm not sure how to spell cuddle)... I think we planned too much show and should have been slashing topics, but we're just so gosh darned eager to make sure everyone has a good time... Mantra for next week: Less is More

And with that, here are this week's amazing artists (Canada, Utah and Washington state, RePrEsEnT!)

1. Instant Winner from Orem, Utah - "Milkshake"
2. 99 Men from Seattle, Washington - "No Fun"
3. Janet Panic from Vancouver, BC - "Blink"
4. Redshift from Toronto Canada - "Can't Let Go"

And now you know what you didn't know when you didn't know what you knew!

So until next week:

Show Up
Pay Attention
Tell The Truth
And Don't Be Attached To The Outcome

namaste
robin

Monday, March 13, 2006

We're Changing Servers (and a few old photos)

Sonovista, my friends!... just a quick tech update... We're changing the location of the schnauzerlogic.com servers, so for the next few days the graphics on this blog might be a little messed up.

LaughingDon't Panic! Laughing This will not affect the postings here on tblog.com or the actual podcast stream (or anything else, i hope!)... If you find something isn't working properly, please leave a comment (you can try to email, but that's being transferred too!)

In order to ease you though this transition, here are a couple of pictures of a very young schnauzer...

that's me in the middle, bottom row, third from the left, holding up the sign... i was 14 here and about as dorky as you could be at a jewish upstate new york day camp

in the photo below i'm still on the bottom row, second from the right, a year older (15) and only a touch less dorky (if you look closely you'll see i'm wearing shorts and sneakers with black socks... Mom!!!!!!)

so for everyone who thinks that we only make fun of Parviz... well, we'l, never stop doing that! but you takes your comedy where you find it!

and now you know what you didn't know when you didn't know what you knew!

namaste... robin

Question of the Week (very late, I know...)

Here's this week's *very late* question of the week:

You 'win' a one-year, all-expense paid lottery (food, clothing, housing) so that for one year you don't have to pay for any living expenses and can travel anywhere and/or do anything.

Name six things that you do (or places that you go) and why... these are things you don't already do or places you don't already go!

namaste
robin

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Shameless Plug for a Great Artist

Sonivista, my friends, and a Happy Sunday!

Thought I'd take an opportunity to put in a shameless plug for an artist friend of mine. Sandra Spencer is a wonderful artist who specializes in painting stylized portraits of pets and animals and landscapes. Sandra painted an original "Blue Schnauzer Behind The Mic" for me many years ago when I first went on the air, and I still use the image as my AIM icon.

You can see all of Sandra's work *here* .

Enjoy, and have a Great Sunday!

namaste
robin

Friday, March 10, 2006

Episode 6 of the Schnauzer Logic Podcast Posted... One Big-Ass Show!!!

Sonovista, my friends!!! Episode 6 of the Schnauzer Logic Podcast is on the server, even as I write... Man-O-Man, what a week, what a show, what a big-ass episode!

First, about 20 minutes before we moved into the studio, Sean called to let us know that he's in the hospital up in San Francisco for some kind of biopsy or face lift or something... He should be home in the next day or so, and we'll keep checking in with him, but feel free to leave a comment for Sean...

Anyway, Sean says he wants to do the show from his hospital bed (what a f'ing trooper!), so we rearrange the schedule, make some calls to our other guests, and get the show started... The opening audio bit this week is the Parviz Fathali School of Broadcasting, which you can grab, by itself, here. We then open the show and manage to talk about Parviz and his wife and why Parviz decided she was the one to marry (hint: he says its because she didn't 'bug him'... the basis of many a great relationship!)... We then get Sean on the phone and move on to our Oscar® round-up. Some interesting insights, well worth a listen... (but to tell you the truth, I am all 'Oscar®ed' out!)

After the next break we dive into the Question of the Week, "Who Was Your Comedy Inspiration"... A lot of great references to a lot of great comedians (and for Cryill who tried to play 'stump the Schnauzer', here are a couple of links to Jerome K. Jerome, who famously said

"I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours."

and Jaroslav HaĊĦek, a Czech humorist and satirist, best known for "The Good Soldier Svejk", a book my father introduced me to as a child!)

We then focus on Parviz's comedy icons (including Patton Oswald, Wayne Cotter, Franklyn Ajaye, Paul Provenza, Fred Wolf, Brian Regan, Dennis Wolfberg, George Carlin (post heart attack), Howie Mandell and Pablo Francisco), Sean's inspiration (Johnny Carson, George Carlin, pre-heart attack, and early Saturday Night Live), and Robin's heros (Bill Cosby, David Steinberg, Alan Sherman, Monty Python, Firesign Theater and George Carlin, both pre and post).

We then say goodbye to Sean (for the week, that is) take our next break, and return with Comedian Jann Karam, of Seinfeld, Mad About You, HBO Young Comedians Special, Carson, Letterman, ER and more fame who talks at length about comedy and her influences in a great and honest segment.

Finally we take our last break and return with a short discussion about Barry Bonds, including a phone call from the man himself (!true!) and a follow-up call from Tim Worrell, and close with this weeks Dairy Update, a non-dairy entry (grrr... doesn't dairy mean cow?) featuring juices from Kerns. We also throw out mad props to Nancy Nangeroni, host of Gender Talk , a weekly two-hour program heard on WMBR in Boston, on the internet as a podcast, and streaming on TransFM.org, focusing on all-issues regarding gender. Trivia Point: I was Nancy's first guest about 10 years ago, and she was kind enough to let me spew for about 15 minutes this past week about Schnauzer Logic. Head over to her website and listen to the show!

And now you know what you didn't know when you didn't know what you knew!...

This week's Outstanding music comes from the following Amazing bands:

1. PinBoys from Aarhus, Denmark - "I Hate All The Things You Love"

2. Kurt Bordian from Vancouver, BC - "Adrenalin Drive"

3. Randy Coleman from Los Angeles - "Last Salutation"

4. Star74 from Thunder Bay, Ontario - "Believe"

So until next week (our Big Ides of March show)...

Show Up
Pay Attention
Tell The Truth
And Don't Be Attached To The Outcome

namaste
robin

Thursday, March 09, 2006

New Episode Coming Later Today

sonovista... we recorded the latest episode last night (wednesday) with special guest, national stand-up comedian Jann Karam, and a phone call from Barry Bonds (no, really!) and Sean calling in from the hospital... but we're a bit behind in the encoding and uploading (some small tech problems), but its all resolved now and the show should be up later this afternoon... its a good one... check back later...

robin

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Results of our Oscar® Contest

Final results:

Robin: 13 Correct

Sean: 10 Correct

Parviz: 7 Correct

In the interest of full disclosure, I think I (robin) got a lot of the smaller/stranger catagories because i watched the BAFTA (British Film Industry) awards a few weeks ago and figured if I didn't know anything about any of the films in a particular catagory, then I would choose the BAFTA winner. So i cheated (by doing research). But I bow down to Sean for picking "Crash" as best picture. Damn, Me-Diddy... it sure is hard out here bein' a pimp! And you da' motion picture man!

Next show Wednesday... we'll do a recap and move on to the next big thing... and if you haven't grabbed the last show (#5) make sure to get it... lots of unplanned funtimes...

namaste
robin

Friday, March 03, 2006

Who was your comedy inspiration? (Question of the week)

Sonovista, kids! We were talking the other day about next week's show and I asked Parviz and Sean to think about who inspired them, in terms of comedy... We each come from different generations (with some overlap), and we thought it would be interesting to discuss where we learned about what it means to be 'funny'... And we thought we'd throw the question out to you guys, too... Post a comment to this entry (click on the tiny number at the bottom of the post) or drop us an email and let us know who (or what) made you laugh, growing up, and who (or what) shaped your funny bone.

namaste
robin

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Our Oscar® Picks

Here's a link to our Oscar® picks (as discussed on the show). Who do you think will win the 'prize'? (and what should the prize be?)... Drop us a line and let us know!

namaste
robin

Episode 5 of the Schnauzer Logic Podcast Posted... Let's Talk Oscars®!

Sonovista, My Friends! Episode 5 of the Schnauzer Logic, The Podcast is now on the server and should be showing up in iTunes and your online players very soon!

Another fun show, though I think you can tell we were all just a bit under-the-weather (listen to the coughing and throat clearing going on in the background)... The opening is a 45 second recap of all the Oscar® nominated films... I like the way it came out, but it wasn't what I originally had in mind... i -swear- I spent all week thinking of ideas... mashing dialog together... writing parody... doing a clown-hosted kids version of the Oscars®... but the truth be told, after listening (and watching) the trailers over and over I got so damn depressed, I lost the will to live... thank god Dick Cheney arrived in the nick of time to save the bit!

Anyway, this was our big, first-annual Oscars® show, and we spent a good amount of time going through the nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and the other top awards. We'll have a link to all our picks online in the next few days, and then we'll see how we did (and the winner gets a prize, Parviz!!!)

Parviz also took a moment to say a heart-felt farewell to Television and Film great, Don Knotts, and we talked about the power of 3 in death (Don Knotts, Darren McGavin and Dennis Weaver).

We also talked about gender radio, and my transgender life, and how we're now being streamed as a part of TransFM.org.

And Sean wrapped up with his strange news story of the day. Plus we played Win John DeKoven's money with Parviz using -last week's questions- and were heartened to learn there's reason to keep hope alive (I believe the children are our future...) Alan Shepard, Boo Boo Kitty (nee Shepard) and Ben Franklin, and we're there!... You know, I had a teacher in High School who used to let the 'dumb' kids take his physics tests over and over until they passed... us 'smart' kids complained that wasn't fair, and he said, "I don't care how long it takes them to get it... I just want them to get it."... I think -he- was the smart kid!

Finally, this week's update from the Dairy Case is LaLa Yogurt from Mexico! Hola, LaLa... Como esta usted?

And more great GarageBand.com music, this time from around the US, with the following musicians checking in:

1. Better Off Dad from Hewitt, Texas, and their song "Lucky"

2. Mark Silverman from San Francisco, CA and his song "My Work Friends"

3. Ghazi also from San Francisco, CA, and his song "When All Is Said"

4. By The Wayside from Tempe, Arizona, and their song "Love Sick Suicide"

and we -almost- got to Nothing Less from Modesto, California... next time, dudes... next time for sure...

And that's all I got! Have a great week... Enjoy the Oscars®... Watch the Independent Spirit Awards (the awards for independent films) this Saturday, March 4th LIVE at 5pm EST, 2pm PST on the IFC channel... And keep those cards and letters coming in (and while you're at it, add us to your friends on MySpace!)

And until next week:

Show Up
Pay Attention
Tell The Truth
And Don't Be Attached To The Outcome

namaste
robin