Weezy and The Swish podcast 005

This week, listen to recorded stand up sets from real LA comedians. Also, Laura dives deep into the freaky world of future obituaries. All this and more on this week's installment of Weezy and The Swish!

And if you would like to hear yourself on the show, just call us toll free at (866) 758-6991. Questions, weird observations, whatever - we want to hear from you!

Here are two recent voicemails that we received today:
Voicemail #1

Voicemail #2

If you get really bored, feel free to call up the voicemail to Weezy and The Swish. But why should you call up? Good question. Probably to help us get to the bottom of a serious poll. Ummmm, I just read about green evangelists, evangelists for the environment. They're behind the controversial website What Would Jesus Drive? I think that's a wonderful question to kick things off. Here's my answer: I think he'd drive a convertible 1999 Mazda Miata with a bumper sticker that read, "If you can read this you're too close" in the back. I can totally see him in a Hawaiian shirt, shorts and Birkenstocks driving along the PCH with his hair blowing behind him, former blind guy sitting next to him.

What do you think? Call , post your response or do both.



In other news, following the indirect advice of Weezy, I went out and got Cool Edit Pro so I can learn to do some sound editing. I can now add this program to all the others I want to learn--HTML, Photoshop and Dreamweaver. It's supposed to be really simple to use, very intuitive. I suspect it's probably very intuitive. And if I am, in fact, correct, it follows that I am the opposite of intuitive. Either that or I don't possess the same level of patience most technical folk do when tackling new projects. A good friend of mind is a self-taught computer consultant, very bright. His wife told me that he'd spend as much as six hours tinkering with a problem until he figured it out. I was blown away. I typically give up after fifteen minutes on a problem. Then again, it probably would have taken me much longer than six hours to figure out the same problem, but it put things in perspective for me.

All right, I've got to get back to learning all these wonderful things. Maybe in 10 years I'll have figured one of 'em out.

Will have the podcast up by this evening. As you can see from this recent picture taken of me earlier, its been a long weekend.

Thanks for bearing with me.

Laura Swisher: Def Poet

Last night I discovered my next calling: Def Poet. I was roaming Barnes & Noble with Guy (lawyer Geek) and Dustin (English lit Geek) and Guy picked up a paperback of Def Poetry Jam poems. The idea was to read random poems with the same cadence and passion exhibited on the HBO show.

Well, that was too easy. I found I'm a natural. The next challenge was to grab random books outside the poetry section and attempt to make the words seem weighty and political. My discovery? Again, I'm a natural. I was able to read a recipe from a Santa Fe cookbook and make it sound like Lanston Hughes.

Doubt me if you must, but come next podcast I shall demonstrate my unique ability. If there's anything you want to hear Def Jaminated, let me know--perhaps I'll treat you to a reading.

Oh, I also bought season two of Dave Chapelle. Turns out I paid too much for it. Barnes & Noble not so great with DVD prices. Oh well.

I like to take my nephew, Jakey on adventures.  Our mission is to discover something new.  The adventures are getting increasingly exciting now that he’s eight.  When he was two, the big discovery would be a cigar butt or a discarded sock.  Now, we take off on Razor Scooter adventures.  On the 4^th of July, in Ojai, we headed off on the bike trails. We like to just keep going until we find something worth investigating.  So we scooted until we came upon a sign which read: Krotona School of Theosophy.  Our mission was now to discover the meaning of Theosophy, develop a deeper understanding of all of the world’s beliefs and snoop around until we were asked to leave. 

 

So we followed the signs, climbing higher and higher and higher.  This place was really tucked away.  No one was stopping us.  I told Jakey that when it comes to exploring, as long as you know you’re not hurting anybody, it is better to venture forth first and ask permission later… until someone starts shooting at you.  But they didn’t shoot and we kept climbing.

 

We reached the top and discovered a beautiful vista, a school, a library, bungalows, a garden, fountains… no actual people with whom we could discuss the basic tenants of Theosophy.  But we found brochures.  And in the absence of actual Theosophists, brochures would do.

 

Here is what we learned.  The Theosophical Society is concerned with: 1) The unity of all people; 2) The study of comparative religion, philosophy and science; and 3) The investigation of unexplained laws of nature and our latent powers.  Theosophy holds that we are all one with each other and with life in the universe.  We can not either harm or  help another without harming or helping ourselves.  We are all one.

This could explain why no one shot at us.  So, I helped Jakey understand their belief that everything we do has a cause and effect relationship with the universe.  Therefore, it would naturally follow that since we had climbed up this long, steep, curving, perfectly paved road, we would now get to scooter down it.

Thus we embarked on the most excellent scooter ride of our lives.  Jakey led the way, helmet securely in place, laughing and screaming with joy the entire ride down.  I followed behind, hearing the rushing whir of my scooter wheels and the peels of delight floating back to me from my nephew, telling me that he would remember this forever and that my sister must never know quite how fast we were going.

It was perfectly awesome.  The laws of nature, karma, gravity, all colliding in a glorious rush down a perfectly paved, private road in Ojai.  The day was capped by fireworks over the High School, which were too loud for Jakey.

But remember, he’s only eight and according to our newly discovered teachings of Theosophy: Our goal is to complete the cosmic cycle of manifestation with full conscious realization of ourselves, no longer polarized between consciousness and matter or divided into self and other, but unified within and united with all other beings through our common Source… which I interpret to mean: little kids should watch fireworks from inside the car with the windows up.

So I just got back from Big Bear this weekend.  This was the trip that necessitated our taping the comedy cast on FRIDAY instead of SATURDAY.  Weezy took the change particularly hard and sent out a really nasty email implying that I am a diva.  Hey, I'm not the one who makes my gardeners sprinkle rose petals along the path leading to my front door.  I don't even have gardeners.  If something needs to be done around the house, I do it myself, unlike someone I know.

Ummm...for more, though not more interesting, information on my weekend at Big Bear, go check out www.lauraswisher.blogspot.com.

Since comedycast #4 went up earlier this week, we've been absolutely bombarded with emails from folks wanting to learn more about Canada Day.  I had no idea the topic would resonate as much as it did.  People are absolutely bonkers for Canada.  So, because YOU asked for it, here's a brief article on the history of Canada Day:

Canada Day

Background

On June 20, 1868, a proclamation signed by the Governor General, Lord Monck, called upon all Her Majesty's loving subjects throughout Canada to join in the celebration of the anniversary of the formation of the union of the British North America provinces in a federation under the name of Canada on July 1^st.

The July 1 holiday was established by statute in 1879, under the name Dominion Day.

There is no record of organized ceremonies after this first anniversary, except for the 50^th anniversary of Confederation in 1917, at which time the new Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings, under construction, was dedicated as a memorial to the Fathers of Confederation and to the valour of Canadians fighting in the First World War in Europe.

The next celebration was held in 1927 to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Confederation. It was highlighted by the laying of the cornerstone by the Governor General of the Confederation Building on Wellington Street and the inauguration of the Carillon in the Peace Tower.

Since 1958, the government has arranged for an annual observance of Canada's national day with the Secretary of State of Canada in charge of the coordination. The format provided for a Trooping the Colours ceremony on the lawn of Parliament Hill in the afternoon, a sunset ceremony in the evening followed by a mass band concert and fireworks display.

Another highlight was Canada's Centennial in 1967 when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II attended the celebrations with Parliament Hill again being the backdrop for a large scale official ceremony.

The format changed in 1968 with the addition of multicultural and professional concerts held on Parliament Hill including a nationally televised show. Up until 1975, the focus of the celebrations, under the name "Festival Canada", was held in the National Capital Region during the whole month of July and involved numerous cultural, artistic and sport activities, as well as municipalities and voluntary organizations. The celebration was cancelled in 1976 but was reactivated in 1977.

A new formula was developed in 1980 whereby the National Committee (the federal government organization charged with planning Canada's Birthday celebrations) stressed and sponsored the development of local celebrations all across Canada. "Seed money" was distributed to promote popular and amateur activities organized by volunteer groups in hundreds of local communities. The same approach was also followed for the 1981 celebrations with the addition of fireworks displays in 15 major cities across the nation.

On October 27, 1982, July 1^st which was known as "Dominion Day" became "Canada Day".

Since 1985, Canada Day Committees are established in each province and territory to plan, organize and coordinate the Canada Day celebrations locally. Grants are provided by the Department to those committees.

Isn't that adorable!?

Even if I was once again left out of the article (grrr), it is nice to see we are still being noticed.

Since I don't believe this particular article has already been shared, here it is...Oh, one other thing. I am still not too sure about this comment made later on in the article:

Geez, not really sure that is what we were shooting for. While I am beginning to see that we are developing a serious female demographic, I am not all that thrilled about being compared with 'The View'.

I have been following Laura Swisher’s blog since she first started it. She is another TechTV/G4 merger cast-off, the co-host of the very funny show (RIP) Unscrewed with Martin Sargent. Her blog is very funny stuff, and frequently updated.

Laura has started a podcast project with Louise Palanker called Weezy and the Swish. New shows are released on no particular schedule just yet, and are generally free-form, humorously covering whatever current events these two decide to talk about.

The odd thing was, I had no idea who Louise Palanker was, but she looked awfully familiar. It wasn’t from her testimony in the Michael Jackson trial (she is a friend of the family who made the accusations), I just remembered seeing her picture somewhere else a long time ago.

Then as I browsed her bio page, it hit me. Louise Palanker was one of the founders of Premier Radio Networks, which was home of the Jim Rome Show, one of my favorite sports radio shows. Premier has since been sold to Clear Channel. [Read the rest]

Weezy and The Swish podcast 004

Recorded on Canada Day, Weezy, Laura and myself tackle important issues such as low dangling name tags, office romance, how to talk to women and even a verbal guide to secret handshakes! Definitely show unlike any other - it's Weezy and The Swish!

Oh, almost forgot! I need every one of you to make darn sure that you visit this link and vote for us at Podcast Alley. I don't think anyone even knew that we were over there since I myself totally forgot that I submitted our show a couple of weeks ago. So please, take a minute out of your day and vote for us. Seriously, a rank of #400 and something is just sad. I have the server reports that prove to me that we ought to in the top #50 at the very least.


Update: