Monday, December 21, 2009

Official Episode 72 Show Notes by Boyana Atanasova

Schnauzer Logic Radio Show

Episode 72:

Sonovista, friends! Here are the next show notes of Schnauzer Logic Radio Show. This time we will discuss Episode 72 and almost everything that happened in it.

I will start with the fact that this was quite serious episode, but as Robin said “Don't worry... we'll change all that in 2010!” It was talked a lot about who should be the man of the decade, while this was the last show for 2009. The guests at the studio – Sheri and Parviz gave their opinion and it was fun to hear their arguments about the list of people Robin was giving them from an online poll.

Robin also gave us some details about his experience as guest at “Gender Blender” on KBOO.fm last week. He didn’t actually had enough time to tell the story of his transitions – the thing that was the reason he is there on the phone, so this interview didn’t turn out as good as he expected. Questions from the host there that were “nobody’s business” pissed him off. However, he found on that program some really nice people he would love to know better. They shared some of his thoughts so it was not so bad experience after all.

Jason was the first guest on the phone and he received a special song about “Hanukkah” – as present from Robin who was again creative with the audio editing. ;) In spite of the great discussion about the nominees for the “Golden Globe” prize Jason made in this episode, he surprised us all with the news that he won the “Golden Mike” award. Congratulations, Jason! This is really awesome! In Episode 72 you can hear the names of the most of the nominated films (for the Globes) this year and the nice comments from everybody in the studio.

Important part of the show this time was the radio journalist from KCBS Doug Sovern whose report about AIDS in Africa (the first part of it; the other can be found here – on the bottom left) was played in Schnauzer Logic. It was horrifying to hear how many problems people there have, but at the same time it was important to know that slowly things are changing for good. Part of the discussion with Doug was the type of thinking and the work of Barack Obama, who is always a nice subject of discussion in the show. Guess why? I can say that Doug was the highlight of Episode 72 and we all hope that he can be part of the show again!

Sheri shared her thoughts about China and the change in the country for the last ten years. She had the opportunity to visit some of the destinations there. The people living there were amazing with the great effort they were making to change the status quo.

It is necessary to say that after a great talk for “Man Of The Decade” was chosen again Barack Obama. It was logic while there in the list were names such as those of a bicyclist and a writer of stories about boys flying on their magic sticks, right Parviz?! ;)

Great holiday wishes were made by everybody in the studio and I am sure they will become true when we know that Schnauzer Logic will continue with its first episode for the new decade in the first week of January 2010. Your fingers should be crossed in the second week, because then will be Robin’s kidney surgery. We all wish him a lot of courage and good health for the years coming!

From my point of view – that was it, the 72nd Episode of Schnauzer Logic Radio Show. Until next year! Gouranga!… or in other words: Be Happy!

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Interesting Artifact and the Podcastification of "AirPlay"

sonovista, my friends... well, having spent my entire Saturday working on setting up this new blog site i've run across some interesting old Schnauzer Logic and AirPlay artifacts.

for those who don't know, in the beginning there was Schnauzer Logic and today there's Schnauzer Logic, but for 10 weeks in the Summer of 2001, i hosted the 9am-11am/M-F morning show on KSCO. the powers that be thought that the moniker "Schnauzer Logic" was too silly (they wanted Cafe Santa Cruz), and so i came up with a bunch of alternatives... one was SonoVista (yes, the show was going to be called SonoVista - "Sonos" for sound, and "Vista" for an expansive view of things you wouldn't normally see, so SonoVista for a broad expanse of things you wouldn't normally hear - get it?)... when i suggested SonoVista the powers that be looked at me like a poodle trying to figure out a card trick, so i went back to the drawing board and came up with AirPlay (we're playing around on the air... right? right?!?) and "repurposed" SonoVista as a new greeting...

anyway, i had an actual producer for AirPlay, the legendary Jodi Lee, and after a week or so it was clear that a lot of our guests had no idea how to be guests, at least not on the radio... so i came up with a list of 10 tips, that i thought every talk radio guest should know (ie, #2 - Despite our best efforts, AirPlay is a radio show, so no one will be able to see you shake your head 'yes' or 'no' in response to a question.)

and here it is (you can click on the image to make it bigger):

now i used to run the old AirPlay shows as a low-bitrate stream on a shoutcast channel, but haven't done that in a few years... but i'm thinking that what i'll do is release all 50 shows/100 hours (including the interviews with ben stein, sugar ray leonard, chubby checker, gary coleman, etc) as a "Directors Cut" podcast, complete with introductory commentary, perhaps one a week during 2010. Sean was on those shows (he sat in almost every friday) as was John DeKoven and Jason and "Cranky Dog" Chip Street and Parviz and a bunch of other folks you may know from SL. so for those who have been looking for access to the back catalog, this will be your Christmas gift for 2010! (i also have all of the old Schnauzer Logic shows from KSCO as well as the live shoutcast streams we did before the invention of podcasting and may find a way to toss those up, too... they're a bit rougher, but still have some very funny bits.)

and now i head off to bed.

hope you all have your holiday shopping done, especially our friends on the east coast where an early storm has dumped almost a foot of global warming white stuff on the ground. Ho Ho Ho!

namaste
robin

You Found Us! - Feel free to park anywhere...

sonovista, my friends, and welcome to the Schnauzer Logic Podcast blog, 2.0.

as you can see things are still under construction (we don't have all the buttons up yet and are still moving over the older blog posts), but the podcast player from Podcast Pickle is working, so it already feels like home.

any comments or suggestions about what you'd like to see here would be most welcome!

show notes for Episode 72, our last of the year, should be arriving on a flight from Bulgaria any day now and will be posted straight away! then look for us to return in the new year.

i may post other random stuff along the way, so check back now and then.

namaste
robin

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Schnauzer Logic Episode 72 is Online!!!

Sonovista, my friends! Well the last Schnauzer Logic for the year is recorded, encoded and trussed up like a Christmas Ham! I'll leave it to Boyana to provide the detailed show notes, but we discuss my recent appearance on Gender Blender, the entire description and audio of which can be found here kboo.fm/GenderBlender along with links to the guests, Donna Rose, Sassafras Lowery (who was VERY cool) and Joanne Herman.

We then finally get around to Jason Nathanson who discusses the nominations for the upcoming Golden Globe awards (Jay will be on the red carpet again this year), his newly announced win of a Golden Mike award, and other assorted nonsense (including a mashup of Alexandra Burke and Bill O'Reilly that goes on waaay too long!)

We also visit with Doug Sovern of KCBS and play part 1 of his 3 part series of AIDS in Africa and the work of the doctors of Faces Kenya and have a chance to discuss his experiences on this and other difficult stories. We also chat about the top/bottom stories of the last decade.

Lots of holiday tunes and much more. A well balanced Schnauzer Logic episode, it actually sounds like we know what we're doing and this could be a real radio show! Don't worry... we'll change all that in 2010!

Much love to you all for the happiest, healthiest and most prosperous of Holiday Seasons and the New Year! See you in the future, which has already begun!

namaste
robin

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Welcome to Gender Blender Listeners

sonovista, my friends! (the traditional Schnauzer Logic greeting)... if you're here because you just heard me babble on incoherently for about 10 minutes on KBOO and Gender Blender, welcome... this is the show blog for a weekly 2hr comedy/pop culture/lifestyle/political/music show hosted by me and a rotating group of friends (they're always friends, they're just not always in the studio or on the phone!)... as i am 'trans' this technically qualifies as a 'trans' show (its true... i looked it up in the big book of 'wha!?!')... but as i was a talk radio host before my transition, after my transition, after my second transition and after my third transition (pant pant pant) this is first and foremost an entertainment show (which is the kind of show i love doing).. i have a unique perspective on gender based on my life experience, but that's not what the show is about... in truth, its about finding ways to make ourselves, each other, and the audience laugh, think, and laugh some more.

check out some of our recent shows (we've started up again after an extended break), or dig through the archives for our interviews with Mort Sahl, Jann Karam, J. Keith VanStratten, Lisa Parade, Bobby Kelton, Taylor Negron or any of the musicians, comedians or authors we've interviewed. as i used to say in my KSCO promos: if you're not doing anything better on a saturday night, it wouldn't kill you to listen.

strong recommendation indeed!

namaste
robin

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Official Episode 71 Show Notes by Boyana Atanasova

Here we are – almost at the middle of December when Episode 71 of Schnauzer Logic radio show is already online. Let’s see what happened this time. Guests at the studio were Sheri, John and Parviz. This time no “phone guests”, but the talk with these people was as interesting and funny as always.

The show started with Robin’s story about his experience with listening short wave radio stations in the beginning of the 70s. Surprisingly for me, he knew a lot about stations such as this in Sofia or in Moscow, because he was a kid that enjoyed listening to music and talking from abroad at his backyard. Sending postcards to these programs and receiving an answer from countries such as Albania and Romania was also something likely that happened to Robin when he was a bit younger. ;)

This time we also heard my first audio report for Schnauzer Logic… It was actually my reading of the previous show notes, but it looked like everybody enjoyed what I’ve made. Next time I will try to do something different as I already have some suggestions from Robin, but we’ll see what will happen.

Main part of Episode 71 was Parviz’s “List of dead people: 2009”. Anything strange in this? Noooope. And, by the way – this was the part were everybody laughed for a veeery long time. Again. Smile However – there were Walter Cronkite, Les Paul, Patrick Swayze, John Updike, Natasha Richardson and many others (someone said Michael Jackson? ;)) in this list. Sheri, John and Robin gave their opinions and impressions about everybody mentioned, pointing at Parviz that he is not well prepared for this segment. ;) On the day after the show was recorded Robin gave a long list with errors that they all made in the comments – a fact that increased the funny element in all this. Listen to the show and you’ll see… [Robin's Comment: Boyana is being very kind in her brief description of this segment. For the record, although Parviz was in a state of panic that we were going to cut him off, the actual discussion of Dead 2009 lasted for almost exactly 50 minutes, including one song break, or just under 50% of the show... I'm just saying...]

One of the nicest surprises this time was the info that someone has made a donation for the Schnauzer Logic Radio Show. So kind of you, whoever you are! This was a reason for Robin to give us advice to donate as much as we can afford and whenever we have ability to do it. An advice that also has my strong support!

Other top ten lists of 2009 were put in the conversation along with a short talk about saying “Merry Christmas” and the message people sent with it to others.

Episode 71 ended some minutes after its second hour without John in the studio. He left before the last segment of the show which Robin dedicated to his thoughts about the experience being transsexual and the process of gender transition. The death of Mike Penner was the reason he started writing some of his own experiences that will probably end up as an interesting book. This theme was also the reason Robin was invited to be a guest on "Gender Blender" next Tuesday, December 15th – on KBOO.fm.

Being happy depends on you and no one could not tell you what should be the way of your life. This is a nice way to end these show notes. Don’t forget that I am saying with them that Episode 71 of the history of Schnauzer Logic is online and waiting for you!

Again – wonderful show, a lot of laugh, good friends, nice music and positive vibes – all in Episode 71.

Until next time!

Friday, December 11, 2009

Go Elf Yourself (The Schnauzer Logic Version)

Thanks to Sheri, we've all been "Elf'd"... check out the video in the new SchnauzerLogic Video Player over in the sidebar.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Episode 71 Erratta

Sonovista, my friends! The official show notes from Boyana will be coming in due course, but in listening back to Episode 71 it appears that our grasp on the truth was looser than usual... this thread is a place to record various errata:

1. John Hughes did not write or direct Chinatown. Chinatown was directed by Roman Polanski and written by Robert Towne and Roman Polanski.

2. John Updike did not write Watership Down. Watership Down is a heroic fantasy about a small group of rabbits written by British author Richard Adams. John Updikes "Rabbit" series includes Rabbit Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit is Rich, Rabbit At Rest and Rabbit Remembered. Unlike Watership Down, the 'Rabbit" series is not about a rabbit.

3. Walter Cronkite did not end his newscasts with, "That's my story and i'm sticking to it". That phrase was recited by Colin Quinn as anchor of the Weekend News Update on Saturday Night Live. Chevy Chase signed off by saying, "I'm Chevy Chase and You're Not". Cronkite said, "And That's The Way It Is (insert date) - For CBS News this is Walter Cronkite. Good Night".

4. Bea Arthur first appeared on TV in the role of Maude as Edith Bunker's cousin, Maude Finley in the series All In The Family.

5. In my discussion about moving the show blog from tblog to blogger i completely 'f'd' up and actually described the process of moving the blog from blogger to tblog. I attribute this total mental collapse to either (a) a micro-stroke or (b) alpha particles from outer space. In either event, the best way to make sure you always arrived at the show blog is to bookmark www.SchnauzerLogic.com

6. A few hunger-related charities that are highly rated as having low operating expenses/overhead and using the greatest percentage of their income for direct charitable purposes:

Action Against Hunger

Feeding America's Hungry Children

Mazon: A Jewish Response To Hunger

Sacred Heart Community Service

7. More info as i get it but right now it looks like i'm going to be a guest on "Gender Blender" next Tuesday, December 15th. The show runs from 6pm to 7pm pacific time and i'm scheduled to be on for 10 minutes in the second half hour. You can listen live on KBOO.FM

8. It's Larry "Bubbles" Brown and not Larry's Bubble Brown. More alpha particles, obviously.

to be continued...

The Photograph Parviz Didn't Want You To See...

studio shot from Episode 71 - a protective order prohibits me from telling you what Parviz was hiding.

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

SchnauzerLogic Episode 71 is Online!!!

Sonovista, my friends! Episode 71 is online. How to describe the episode? Parviz, Parviz, Parviz! (hmmm mmmm mmmm!)

Show notes from Boyana will most certainly follow as Summer follows Spring!

until next time:

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

namaste
robin

Monday, December 07, 2009

Official Episode 70 Show Notes by Boyana Atanasova

This time, the show started really amazing! Robin decided to begin Episode 70 of Schnauzer Logic with the Bulgarian national anthem. What a great surprise for me and a wonderful gesture of our host, buddy and pal! :p

Guests at the studio were Sheri Stevens and John De Koven. Ops, I almost forgot Jeff Maranhas just like Robin did several times with John. On the phone there was a talk with Sean and Jason. As Robin said, Episode 70 was “politics free” so pop culture was the general topic of the show. Main role was given to Tiger Woods and the voice mail message that he sent to his lover. Everybody enjoyed commenting this strange message while Jason made a material about it on the KNX radio.

Pop culture this time meant the wedding of Chelsea Clinton, TV shows that everybody in the studio and on the phone watches, a scene from “The Big Lebowski”, Ivana Trump, Samuel L. Jackson (<=this link is NOT safe for work!) and so on… It was surprising to know how many hours Robin watches television per week! All of the guests made their comment on what they like and don’t like from the list of famous shows Robin gave them.

Interesting twist in this conversation was the talk about men and women in their 40s or 50s who decided to discover themselves as gays or lesbians. The main point of view that everybody shared was this one - people don’t usually look strange on such things when they happen at that age.

Sean (? I don’t make great difference between Sean and Jason’s voice, sorry!)… hmm, I am not sure that it was actually Sean, but however – he shared his experience in writing a script for a horror movie. If we trust him – “horror” people are not as geeky as we think they are. He received many ideas from fans of this genre and now he expects a good result of his hard work from the past few months. He was the one that said that there is money for such project so everybody wished him a good luck with it.

Robin was the next one who revealed news about Schnauzer Logic. He is now looking for second virtual assistant who will help him made an application for iPhone. It is supposed to be an easy way to have access to all of the podcasts recorded under the mark of Schnauzer Logic. If everything goes right – it may help everyone who is interested to read also this kind of show notes after the show is recorded and put online.

It was quite an amazing to understand that Parviz was the man who stopped a flight some years ago and Robin was helping him getting out of the trouble he had. The story is getting even more hilarious when you hear the details on Episode 70, while you reading the news posted about it here and here.

Jeff in the studio was also one of the attractions this time. Except for his sense of humor and funny way of interrupting others’ conversation, he told a strange story that happened to him not long ago. There were pajamas, handcuffs and police involved, but if you want to know the details – just check Episode 70 online.

And that was all. Actually – not all, but almost everything interesting that happened in Schnauzer logic radio show – Episode 70.

Until next time:

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

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

SchnauzerLogic Episode 70 is Online!!!

Sonovista, my friends! Episode 70 is signed, sealed and delivered to the iTunes Store for your enjoyment, so start enjoying already! Sheri, John DeKoven and my buddy Jeff Maranhas in the studio, Jason and Sean on the phone... lots of laughs and great music... and new show notes by Boytana Atanasova coming soon!

in the meanwhile:

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

namaste
robin