Don’t Click That Mouse, Hand Me the Keyboard

A Mr. D.F. Rogers of Massachusetts writes:

Check out the pricing on this very essential and cool mp3 item. I think there is still a logic problem with digital/mp3 pricing… 😉

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Crush-That-Dwarf-Pliers/dp/B00138KN6O/

You can buy each side of “Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers” for only 99 cents each — since each side technically has only one “track” — but if you want the whole album (both tracks!), well then it is $9.99!

The same goes for “All Hail Marx and Lennon” (How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You’re Not Anywhere At All) — it’s cheaper to buy the cuts than the whole album, though only by a buck or so. BUT you can get “Nick Danger” — all 28:00 mins of it — for just 99 cents! I think I’ll do it!!! Just $2.97 for three sides of mp3 side-splitting fun, and you didn’t even know that an mp3 had sides!

I think Firesign Theater would appreciate the absurdity of this, although they are getting very little monetary gain from it.

Denro has since reported that he has indeed taken advantage of this big boggin — two tracks for two dollars, instead of the same two tracks as one album for ten dollars, and the Nick Danger track, too. I already have both albums on CD, but come to think of it I haven’t seen Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers in a long time. I’ll invest two dollars worth of time looking for it before buying the MP3, which should make the CD magically appear.

Go Fluke yourself, Rush

I registered as a Democrat during Bill Clinton’s second term. I’m a social liberal, but I’d call myself a fiscal conservative, although my definition of conservatism doesn’t include wild speculative investing and unregulated financial markets.

Boston-based GOP consultant, and former reporter, Meredith Warren is my kind of Republican. On Tuesday’s The Takeaway, she explained why she thinks the Republican Party is going down the wrong path with the recent emphasis on women’s issues. At least everybody seems to agree that Rush Limbaugh’s personal attack on Sandra Fluke is unforgivable.

[audio:http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/audio.wnyc.org/takeaway/takeaway031312l.mp3|titles=The Takeaway: Republicans and women]

Firesign before Python

Before I first heard Monty Python on WBCN in Boston in 1971-72, the station played records by the comedy troupe The Firesign Theatre. Founding member Peter Bergman has died. In The Further Adventures of Nick Danger, Third Eye, Bergman played Lt. Bradshaw, as heard in this audio clip.

http://youtu.be/Ouuq5J7lSuY

The first three Firesign Theatre albums are my favorites. They’re smart, savvy, carefully crafted, intricate, subversive, and for myself Nick Danger led to an interest in what is now called Old Time Radio. For someone of my generation, the Firesign Theatre records hold up well to repeated listenings, and they evoke a great deal of nostalgia. There was that time in college, in a dorm room that was not mine, listening to Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers, and… uh… well, never mind about that.

“… and there’s hamburger all over the highway in Mystic, Connecticut…”

Moebius strip

When I noted the passing of Ralph McQuarrie last week, I also thought of the cartoonist Jean Giraud, and now the man who called himself Moebius is also dead. Giraud came to mind because he was one of the artists who worked on Alien, along with Ron Cobb and H.R. Giger. As influential as Star Wars was, only two years later, while The Empire Strikes Back was in production, Alien redefined the look and feel of Sci-Fi movies.