All posts by Joseph

Usual Rubbish

Inside August (2019).

Sure, it’s hard to put out a podcast when you’re sleeping in a potting shed. But hard shouldn’t stop you when there’s important work to be done. Unless it gets too hard. Then, well …. maybe you could do a blog post instead. Man … that’s roughing it.

Well, you may have already noticed, but our August 2019 installment of THIS IS BIG GREEN was posted this week, and unlike our July episode, this one includes Matt and a non-retread episode of Ned Trek. So if you scratched over the last TIBG, don’t miss this one. Here are some highlights:

Ned Trek 40: Day of the Dopes. Amazingly, we’ve reached the fortieth episode of our Star Trek political parody space opera. This episode is adapted from the classic Star Trek script, “Day of the Dove”, with not unexpected modifications and substitutions. Look for bad imitations of Bill and Hillary Clinton as well as other fripperies.

Put The Phone Down. We talked another green streak this time out, touching on fledgling falcons, turtle eggs, Monte Markham and Frank Zappa, among other things. Matt and I also take a moment to revisit the racist cartoons of our youth, from wartime Popeye to Johnny Quest. Quite an upbringing we had, right?

Song: Pagan Christmas, by Big Green. A selection off of our first album, 2000 Years To Christmas. It’s a rocking little number that I want my jockey to play. (Oh, wait … that’s another song. This one is about Christmas dinner.) Big favorite among the wiccan community, so we hear.

Prepare to launch podcast!

Song: For Your Majesty’s Amusement, by Big Green. This is one of the tracks off of our second album, International House. Kind of a subversive take on royalty of all descriptions, inspired in part by a scene from the movie Orlando. Any song that ends with people carrying torches has to have something going on, right?

Song: The Bishop, by Big Green. One of my favorite tracks from International House. I can tell Matt mixed this one, because it sounds pretty good. What is so important? Ask the Bishop.

Song: Aw Shoot, by Big Green. We’ve played this number from our third album, Cowboy Scat, before on the podcast. It’s partly inspired by the theme song from the bizarre-ass caveman movie Yor: Hunter of the Future. We do pretty bad Scandinavian accents, as you’ll hear.

Song: Box of Crackers, by Big Green. While it never appeared on one of our albums, Box of Crackers started life as a Christmas song, then morphed into something else. It’s a close relative of our song One Small Step in that they were originally produced as part of the same project. A period piece to be sure, but it still has some relevance re “Kentucky Mitch”.

Political Rants

Turn right at Greenland.

Trump may well think there’s something rotten in Denmark, but it’s hard to know for sure. This past week’s strange interlude about Greenland seems more like a textbook study in megalomania as it  gradually unfolds. Where did Trump get this idea about buying this inhabited, now-melting glacial island from the Danes? The first story that I heard was that it was some Danish diplomat, but god only knows where that came from.

The simple fact is, well, Trump is a simpleton; somebody told him that he could buy Greenland, and he believed whoever that was. In his tiny mind, everything is for sale – it’s just a question of price. I’m thinking that as he saw the public reaction and it began to dawn on him how idiotic he looked, he did what proto-dictators always do – they bend every effort to make the world conform with their delusions. Trump doubled down on the claim, and suddenly there emerged some weird proposal about a kind of extended lease, which is essentially what the U.S. already holds with regards to its military bases on the island. Then when the prime minister (herself an anti-immigration freak) called the idea absurd, Trump canceled his scheduled state visit to Denmark.

Big Island Mine!

I know people are tempted to laugh at this episode, but we have to remind ourselves that this is the president of the United States and, as such, someone capable of tremendous harm all around the world. And I know he and his administration are deliberately trying to trigger people like me by acting strangely and saying outrageous things, but I think he is seriously showing signs of dictatorial self-aggrandizement and the autocrat version of shut-in syndrome, where all you hear is the echo of your own voice. This week Trump said, in effect, that either 80 percent of Jewish Americans are disloyal to themselves and to Israel (once again associating them with another country, as he has done before) or they are just plain stupid. Then he repeated a crackpot claim that Israelis see him as “the chosen one.” Oh … and said that he might want to be president for 10 or maybe 13 years. Somebody needs to shut that shit down.

We are dealing with a deranged right-wing nutjob in the White House. Isn’t there a constitutional amendment designed for a situation like that?  The sad fact is, people in Washington could stop this crap show, but they will not. It’s down to us.

luv u,

jp

Podcast

THIS IS BIG GREEN: August 2019

Audio

Big Green hails the closing days of Summer with a brand spanking new episode of Ned Trek, some tracks from their studio albums, and some troll-like jabbering that amounts to naught. Get your green right here!

This is Big Green – August 2019. Features: 1) Ned Trek 40: Day of the Dopes; 2) Put the phone down: Swimming in lush pools; 3) Fledgling updates; 4) Swapping voices; 5) Peddling conspiracy theories; 6) Turtle eggs that look like the moon; 7) The story of Monte Markham; 8) The show so far; 9) Zappa talk; 10) The racist cartoons of our youth; 11) Song: Pagan Christmas, by Big Green; 12) Song: For Your Majesty’s Amusement, by Big Green; 13) Song: The Bishop, by Big Green; 14) Song: Aw Shoot, by Big Green; 15) Song: Box of Crackers, by Big Green; 16) Buying Greenland; 17) The dairy area; 18) Time to go.

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